


How To Raise A Dark Lord

by elvirakitties



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dumbledore Bashing, Good Malfoy Family, Good Voldemort, M/M, Manipulative Dumbledore, Nice Vernon Dursley, No Horcruxes, Parent Severus Snape, Pre-Slash, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-10 19:37:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7858390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elvirakitties/pseuds/elvirakitties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What is Vernon was a good guy and wanted to help Harry? What would happen is Harry was raised by Severus? If the Dark Lord wasn't truly dead?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vernon and Snape Team Up

Vernon wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do, but it needed to be done. He knocked on the door and waited. "What?" The door was thrown open. "If you are selling something I am not interested." The man standing there was tall, lean, and had a huge nose. 

"I am looking for Severus Snape." Vernon heard the man was surly but he was hoping this would work, it really needed to work.

Severus stepped out of the house and winced at the sunlight. "Who are you?" He was ready to hex the man if he was a salesman. The man was smaller in height but looked like he was double in weight.

Vernon didn't back down despite how he was being glared at. "I am Vernon Dursley, may we speak inside?" Vernon asked. He looked around and noticed that no one was on the street, but he didn't want to take a chance. 

"We can speak out here." Severus snapped, what would it take to get rid of this man.

"Mr. Snape trust me when I say this would be better to speak inside. It's vital." Vernon said, he had to do this, there was no other way.

"Fine, get in." He leaned out the door and checked the street. He didn't need anyone seeing him having visitors, they might get ideas and he didn't want that. He frowned, he needed a hangover potion and badly. "Don't sit there, that is my chair." Severus growled as he moved to his chair and sat down. "Well what do you want, I have an appointment." He didn't add with a bottle of scotch.

"I am unsure if you know who I am, but I am married to Petunia Evans." Vernon told him, 

"My deepest sympathies." Severus shivered at the idea of even being in the same room as Petunia much less married to her.

"I agree, I am here for a reason, I am hoping you can help. Someone by the name of Albus Dumbledore dropped off Harry Potter off on my doorstep. In the middle of the night, he slept outside all night." He held up his hand stopping Severus from speaking. "Let me finish, I have a limited time frame, Petunia will be expecting me home at my usual time and we have a lot to speak about. I will keep it as short as I can." 

"Please continue." Severus told him, he quickly went through a small list of poisons he could deliver to the Headmaster that would make him wish he had never heard of Severus Snape.

"Petunia hates Harry, and I found her starving him and locking him in the boot cupboard. I got home last night from work and found my son hitting Harry and my wife was allowing it. It wasn't the usual type of hitting, he was using his fists and Harry was crying. That was the last straw for me. I am going to be filing for a divorce, I have already spoken to a barrister a few months ago about it. I will be keeping my son. She has no job skills and the house is mine. I am, however, worried about Harry, as I can't take him because he isn't really my nephew if we get divorced. Petunia will get worse as he ages if we don't do something to protect Harry from her." Vernon cautioned. "She has been spitting venom about your world since we found Harry on our doorstep in the morning."

Severus had sat up straight as Vernon was speaking. He knew Petunia and she was a shrew when they were younger, he can't imagine what she was like now that her parents weren't around to control her. "I knew Albus put him with relatives, he never said who." He needed a headache potion and a hangover one now. "Give me a second." He went to his potion stores, he took the required potions and returned to his seat. "He left him on your doorstep?" 

"Yes, with a note basically saying if we didn't take him in, we would be in danger." He pulled out the letter. He handed it to Severus. 

Severus opened the letter and began to read. His eyes were the only thing that showed how betrayed he felt as he read the letter. It said: 

I am entrusting your nephew into your care. James and Lily were killed last night defending him. You need to take him until I am ready for his return to our world. I have provided wards that will keep your family safe for those in our world. Do not allow him any knowledge of our world, he isn't to know about his parents, his heritage, and must be taught to obey, be submissive, and how to serve. Do not worry about his treatment as long as he is alive. 

Albus Dumbledore.

He lowered the letter and looked at Vernon Dursley. "You are here, why?"

"When I was at the Potters' wedding, I met James, Sirius Black, Dumbledore and few others, needless to say, I wasn't impressed by any of them. I found James and his friends were the male version of Petunia. Dumbledore was too good to be true, calling everyone my boy and going on about the protection love can provide. However, Lily mentioned you, that Black fellow and James went off about how dark and evil you were, Lily defended you. When I asked Petunia about you, I got an earful, about how you corrupted her sister, how skillful you were in protecting yourself, she didn't word it like that, but I got the message. I figure if anyone would be able to protect Harry it would be you." Vernon told him. "Petunia told me you were with the one who killed the Potters' but I figured if this Dumbledore couldn't protect the Potters, is willing to allow a boy to be abused, and wants to keep him ignorant of his world, he shouldn't have anything to do with Harry. I don't care what anyone says any man who is willing to leave that type of letter is giving permission for abuse to happen." 

Severus reread the letter and thought about the last eight months. It was almost the end of June and Harry would be two soon. "What do you have in mind?" 

"In my car, are the trunks that belonged to James and Lily, they got left at our house about a week after we got Harry. We were told the trunks were all that was left. I don't believe that James and Lily mentioned that James didn't have to work, which set Petunia off on another tirade that night about how Lily had such an easy life. I opened the trunks and found all kinds of books, pieces of parchment, and other things that were their personal items like photos. I have been reading those books and I found something I believe we can use." Vernon told him. 

Severus grinned, he understood what the man was speaking about. "How soon can you bring Harry to me?"

"Tomorrow." Vernon replied.

"I will get everything on the magical end, can you take care of the muggle side?" Severus asked.

"Already have. When I went to the barrister a few months ago, I had him draw up adoption papers for Harry, I had him leave the name blank. I knew you taught at Hogwarts, and I didn't know where it was." Vernon looked at his watch. "Since tomorrow is Saturday I can bring Harry here by noon. I took the afternoon off of work to come and speak to you."

____________________________________________________________________________

Severus opened the door before Vernon could knock. He was carrying a sleeping Harry in his arms. "He fell asleep as soon as I got him into the car. He doesn't have much." Vernon laid Harry down on the couch. "I was able to feed him some breakfast before I left."

"I pick up some food that I believe is suitable for him. I also set up a room for him, a temporary one as I believe I will be moving to a safer place." Severus told him. He had spent the remaining day and night getting everything ready. He even set up an appointment for them at Gringotts. Severus looked down at Harry, he looked so much smaller than Draco and Draco was a month older. "I can fix the damage she did to his body."

"I read about what your potions could do." Vernon looked down at Harry. "She turned my son into the exact opposite. I am going to have to put him on a diet." He caressed Harry's head. "I am not sure what name he will get at your bank, but I signed the adoption papers and Lily mentioned blood adoption potions providing a new name based on the parents. I am not sure if I got it exactly correct, but I am assuming that it will cover who he is, and you will be able to protect him, completely." He knew he sounded tired and he was. He was just thankful that Harry and his son were now protected. 

Severus sat down and sighed, he was still trying to process what Dumbledore had done. Dumbledore had been telling everyone how loved he was, how safe he was, how he was going to get special training. It was all a lie. He looked over to Vernon. "Let me explain what will happen concerning the blood adoption. Last night I brewed the potion required. I will add my blood into the potion I made last night, Harry will have to willingly drink it. Once he has swallowed it, magic bonds my blood to his genetic make-up, giving him my family's attributes, he will still be a Potter and Evans but he will now be a Snape and Prince. He will be my son, in all ways, not just in name."

Vernon smiled, he got Harry away from his soon to be ex-wife and the old coot. "So Dumbledore won't be able to take him away?" He liked this idea. He didn't like that sly old coot. He didn't when he first met him and leaving Harry behind on a doorstep didn't endear the man to him.

"No, and after it's done I am going to speak to a few of my powerful friends as added protection for him." Severus smirked, he knew Lucius hated Dumbledore and would aid him. The man would love a chance to go after Dumbledore and he wanted a piece of the man himself.

Vernon pulled out the paperwork. "I had her sign too. I told her she signed or she wouldn't get to see Dudley. I gave her the divorce papers last night too. My barrister says the papers will just need to be filed, it will be a closed adoption, so Dumbledore won't be able to find out. I already paid for the fee."

"I have an appointment to take care of the magical side this afternoon. I made a promise to protect Harry and I will." Severus told him.

"Thank you." Vernon told him. "I will be at my sister's this weekend, I will leave you my contact information. I gave Petunia this weekend to move out of the house, I am not sure if that will buy you time to get everything done, but I am not sure how long those wards will remain up. There wasn't a lot of information about wards in their information."

"I am not sure, since I haven't seen them, but the weekend will be enough time to get everything set up." Severus informed him. "All Dumbledore ever said is that they were based on Lily's blood."

"Crazy old coot." Severus thought Vernon's words summed up Dumbledore really well. 


	2. Surprises

Severus walked quickly into Gringotts, with Harry in his arms. Harry was wide awake and watching everything. After Vernon left, Severus had watched Harry as he slept, he made a lot of plans and began to think about how to approach Lucius with this information. He had the blood adoption potion in his pocket. He approached the teller area and waited for his turn. Soon he found himself in the office of Ironclaw. He wasn't sure how he ranked getting the Head Account Manager, but he wasn't going to object.

"May your gold flow, Ironclaw." Severus bowed, shifting Harry in his arms, who let out a bit of a giggle at the movement. 

"Professor Snape, I have been waiting for you to see me for a while." Ironclaw said as a way of greeting Severus. "Please take a seat, I believe we have a lot of issues to work through."

Severus took a seat and set Harry on the chair next to him. Harry looked surprised for a second but remained seated. "Thank you for meeting with me. I know it was short notice, but it was vital that I meet with the goblins of Gringotts. I am not sure if you were aware of where Albus Dumbledore placed Harry Potter or not, but I have retained custody of him." Severus pulled out the paperwork and handed it to Ironclaw. 

Ironclaw read through the paperwork and glanced to Harry and to Severus. "This makes things easier for us, and we will gladly aid you." He pulled out some parchment and waved his hand over a stack of files. "Professor Snape, I do need to do an Inheritance Test on each of you. There are a lot of anomalies in each of your accounts."

Severus frowned as he thought about Ironclaw's choice of words but accepted that they did need an Inheritance Test. "Can the fee be removed from my vault?"

"Yes, that won't be an issue." 

Thirty minutes later, they had Harry official adopted, his new name was Hadrian Severus Potter Black Prince Snape. They had switched the proxies of Harry's titles to Severus, and since Harry was the "head" of the families, they were able to bury the new proxy of those titles. "This change won't cause any problems since no laws have been pushed through in the last few months due to the Death Eater trials." Ironclaw explained once they realized Dumbledore had taken control over the seats and had been using them illegally since in the Potters' Wills Dumbledore had been forbidden from taking control of Harry, his seats, and vaults. They had been surprised to realize the witnesses to the Will was Remus Lupin.

They moved on to the financial aspect of their accounts. Severus had been a bit surprised to find that Dumbledore had hidden Lord Prince's Will that declared that Severus' son would be the new Lord Prince, and the accounting again showed that Lord Prince had tried to help out his daughter and grandson, but the funds went to the vault of the Order of the Phoenix. They did a recall on those funds, tomorrow's paper would state that Gringotts had started an audit on all vaults, seats, and titles, due to the discovery of a Muggle-born inheriting a title, due to being from a squib line of the now deceased family. 

Ironclaw and Severus had been a bit surprised to find funds going from the Potter vault to the Dursley family and when Severus mentioned that he didn't believe Vernon knew about them, Ironclaw pulled the account of the vault in question and found the funds were going to Dumbledore, Molly Weasley, and Remus Lupin. Severus now understood how the Wills got ignored, how Harry ended up at the Dursley house and why. The man wanted to control their world. The accounting aspect of their new vaults, with the recalling of items and funds, took a few hours.

Harry had fallen asleep during their time at Gringotts. When Severus was finished he glanced to Harry. "Do you think we should do a de-aging potion?" 

"No, since it was a closed adoption on the muggle side and with the blood adoption here, we listed the previous parents as being a Muggle-born and Pure-blood but didn't put the names down. If you ever need proof that he was Harry Potter, an Inheritance Test will prove that. I will add the original in his files, but the Ministry won't receive a copy of it." Ironclaw replied. "Now, one more thing, you mentioned Mr. Dursley came to your house. In looking through our files, I noticed that you have a Muggle Repellent ward on your house. Mr. Dursley shouldn't have been able to find your house. I believe Mr. Dursley might be a squib, and I would suggest you bring him and his son here for testing."

Severus leaned back in his chair, shocked, he couldn't believe what he just heard. If Dumbledore knew that Vernon was a squib, he would have kittens. The man was counting on Vernon and Petunia loathing magic and treating Harry like dirt. "I will bring him tomorrow. I have his information." 

"Good, I will set up the appointment for three." Ironclaw responded. 

Severus stood up, walked to where they had put Harry down for a nap after Harry had been yawning a bit so they set up a cot for him to sleep on. Severus knew for at least the next month or more Harry would tire easily, and sleep more than most children his age, because of the healing process from the potions he was now taking. He picked up his new son and headed out of Gringotts. 

____________________________________________________________________________________

Nine years later:

It was the middle of July, and he knew Dumbledore had some plans regarding Harry Potter. He had overheard him speaking to Minerva about taking care of Harry's home visit. Severus looked over to Lucius, took a sip of his tea. "Vernon said the owls have been flying around his house, they keep dropping letters off for Harry Potter. He sent me the first one." Severus handed it over to Lucius. "He also mentioned getting them in his floo."

"It doesn't look like it was written by the charmed quill." Lucius said after carefully examining the letter and envelope. "I wonder what he is planning." 

"No it wasn't by the quill if you look closely you can see that it's his handwriting. We know Harry Potter isn't in the book." Severus told him. Severus had looked in the Book of Names shortly after the start of the new school year after he adopted Harry and found Harry's name wasn't in it any longer, but his son's name was. Dumbledore had accepted their story about Hadrian being a son of one of the witches that the Dark Lord had selected for him. They claimed the witch had died and left Harry to him. 

"I had the goblins look at the wards again. They were just changed recently. The blood wards are still there, but he added a proximity ward, health ward, and one that limits the area Harry would have been able to travel alone. Ironclaw said they were based on Hadrian's blood." Lucius told him. "Marvolo wanted me to keep track of them yearly, so we can use it against Dumbledore later."

"How does he have Hadrian's blood?" Severus began to think about what it would mean for them if he had access to Hadrian's blood. "Where could he have gotten it from?" They had made the decision to call Harry, Hadrian so that there wouldn't be any hint of Hadrian being Harry Potter. 

"I am not sure, but I think it's those silver things in his office that you mentioned." Lucius told him. "The blood wards are still focused on Dudley. So the owls and letters are going to Dudley, I think he changed the name to Harry Potter, believing that they changed his name, it's what Marvolo and I believe is happening."

"He would believe Dudley is Harry Potter, as Petunia and Vernon aren't magical at least in his eyes." Severus commented. "I heard him telling Minerva that he would handle Harry Potter's home visit." The goblins found out, however, that Vernon and Petunia were squibs and Dudley was a full wizard.

Lucius' eyebrow arched. "I wonder who he will send to educate Harry about our world?"

"It won't be him, I am thinking it will be Hagrid. The man trusts Dumbledore, Dumbledore wants Hagrid to pick up a package from Gringotts. He also wants us to provide some form of protection for whatever Hagrid is picking up." Severus took another sip of his tea. 

"He wants to test Harry." Lucius said. "What do you think he wants Hagrid to say to Harry? I hope Vernon will be able to show us his memory of Hagrid being told that there isn't a Harry Potter there."

"That would be interesting to see. The poor man won't know what to do. However, in regards to Hagrid, if he found Harry Potter, Hagrid would praise Dumbledore, Hagrid would be reluctant to speak about the Dark Lord and Harry's fame." Severus sighed. "He is setting Harry Potter up to be in Gryffindor, Hagrid as his first contact will make Dumbledore seem like a perfect mentor. If Harry was abused, it would work." 

"It would have worked too." Lucius frowned for a second, "Severus, it will be fine."

"When is everyone arriving?" Severus asked, ignoring Lucius' comment. He knew why Lucius said it. He had been thinking of what Dumbledore would do when he realized Harry Potter wasn't on Privat Dr. He knew the man would start making some crazy plans and drag him into them. 

"Vernon said he wanted to wait until after the home visit. He wanted to make sure no one is watching the house. The owls won't leave. Dumbledore hasn't put the idea of the owls not leaving with no Harry Potter at the house." Lucius got up and picked up some parchment. "We did get a weird request from Dumbledore, well the Board did." 

"What weird request?" Severus asked, he took the parchment and read it, after several minutes, he let out a laugh. "He actually fell for it."

"Yes, the Dark Lord was surprised. Quirrell is now a Professor at Hogwarts." Lucius told him.

Severus let out a bit of a chuckle. He tilted his head a bit as he heard the voices of Draco and Hadrian coming closer to Lucius' study. 

****************************Flashback**********************************

Severus apparated to Malfoy Manor. Hadrian didn't handle it, and Severus rubbed his back. "You will be fine Hadrian, Daddy's got you."

"No like." Hadrian told him, as he buried his head into Severus' neck. 

"I know but it will get better." Severus told him. He carried Hadrian to the Manor. He had already let Lucius know he was coming and hinted about what it was concerning.

Severus was guided to Lucius' office. Hadrian had been looking around as they walked through the manor and while his eyes got big at seeing everything. Hadrian's reaction was the at his manor. "Pictures move." Hadrian told him.

"Yes, they do, just like at home." Severus told him. "Remember talking to Grandpa Prince? We can do the same here." Severus explained. 

"Grandpa here?" Hadrian asked, looking at the portraits for Severus' grandfather.

"No, he isn't but there are others here." Severus told him. "The ones in these ones are all related to Lucius Malfoy." He had spent all the time that Hadrian was awake letting the boy know he was now his son and family. He patiently answered all of Hadrian's endless questions, even using the muggle phone to call Vernon to have him talk to Hadrian and reassure him that everything was fine.

He was almost to Lucius' study when Hadrian leaned into him. "Home better." Hadrian yawned. 

"Sleep, my Brat." Severus rubbed a hand down Hadrian's back. He knocked on Lucius' door and at the word enter, he stepped into Lucius' inner sanctuary.

"Severus, I was a bit surprised to get your message." Lucius said after their basic greetings and the serving of tea. 

"I am sure you know who this is?" Severus indicated a sleeping Hadrian, who was sleeping on the couch next to Severus.

"I do, and I am wondering why you are here with him." Lucius told him. 

Severus quickly explained what happened when Vernon arrived at his house. How he blood adopted Hadrian and what he had learned from the goblins when they took an Inheritance Test. Severus told them about Dumbledore using the seats, the titles Dumbledore had tried to hide from James Potter and how Dumbledore worked it so that Hadrian had to go to the muggles. He told him about Petunia's abuse. After he was finished, he sighed and looked at Lucius. 

"What do you want me to do?" Lucius asked, he thought Severus was leaving a bit of the story out but he wasn't going to worry about it as of yet. 

"I want you to help me in protecting Harry Potter, now my son Hadrian. Dumbledore wants to use Harry Potter as a weapon and I refuse to allow him to do that. I know I can't quit working at Hogwarts, I need to be there for when the Dark Lord returns and to protect Hadrian." 

"Good." A voice said, stepping out of the shadows. 

"My Lord?" Severus stood up and quickly bowed. Severus thought quickly about finding out how to get something that would allow him to see through invisibility spells. 

"Relax Severus and cease using my Lord. You protecting Harry is better than what Lily and I had planned. She knew Dumbledore wasn't honest and was trying to stop him before he killed them. I arrived too late to save them, but I did save Harry. There was no Killing Curse tossed at Harry, the ashes were set up. I am not sure who exactly killed the Potters, but I can tell you they didn't plan it very well." The Dark Lord sat down in the chair next to the couch. "I laid down the blood wards for protection. Lily and I did the blood magic while James was off on an assignment."

"Lily was a Death Eater?" Severus was in shock, he was going to be cursed for speaking like this to his Lord. 

"No, she wasn't one. She wrote to me, after a visit from Dumbledore. She said he was so focused on making the prophecy come true that she didn't feel he was going to protect them. She also said something that got me thinking about it."

"What did she say?" Severus asked he was wondering what Lily had said. Lily, she was his best and only true friend. He missed her terribly but his son had her eyes.

"She asked why were you in Aberforth's pub? You aren't known for socializing and certainly, don't like to drink out in public." The Dark Lord commented. "When I began to think of that aspect, what she said about Dumbledore's lack of concern for their safety, a Fidelius Charm, after moving them from the ancient wards at Potter Manor to Dumbledore's new house in Godric's Hollow didn't make sense."

"It was his house?" Lucius asked.

"Yes, his mother bought it in the early 1900's." The Dark Lord responded. "When Lily pointed those things out, I agreed to aid her and protect Harry. I know about the Vow you also made to protect Harry, Severus. Your mark told me about it. I am fine with it. We found the spell for the blood magic ritual in one of the older books. She agreed it would work and knew they wouldn't make it out alive, Dumbledore was going to make it happen one way or another. If she became a Death Eater, she was afraid he would kill Harry." 

"I had wondered how the blood magic happened. Lily never studied it as far as I knew. Dumbledore pushed this idea of love that saved Harry's life. It's been sickening to listen to him spout off about how their love saving Hadrian. He has been refusing to answer any inquiry about where Harry has been placed."

"Love?" Lucius and the Dark Lord sputtered. "Love." They said again as they couldn't hide the contempt that was in their voice.

"Yes, he has been telling Order members it was love that saved Harry and that it was love that set the blood wards on his relative's house. Vernon had the goblins check the wards the blood wards are there because of Dudley being a wizard, the goblins said and because Hadrian and Dudley share the same blood as Lily they became active." 

"Well, that will make it easier to hide Hadrian from the man." The Dark Lord thought for a few minutes. "He still looks like a Potter."

"It's the hair." Lucius commented, looking closely at Hadrian. "His face is closer to Severus and the Prince line. How do we cover up the scar?"

Severus looked at his sleeping son. "He is also the Black heir, Sirius Black did a blood adoption on him, after he was named godfather. I am not sure about the scar."

The Dark Lord looked at Hadrian and grinned. "Lucius, do you think Narcissa would do a blood adoption on Hadrian, give him more of a Black family look?" He got up and touched the scar and pulled his hand away. "Severus, Lucius touch the scar, something feels different about it."

Severus touched it with his fingertip of his right-hand index finger. He frowned. "It feels like a curse scar on the surface, but something is off about it."

Lucius traced it with his fingertip of the same hand and with the same finger. "It feels like dark magic but it's hiding something."

"I agree. Did the goblins find anything out about it?" The Dark Lord asked.

"No, they didn't do anything but the Inheritance Test. I did a health scan on him and have been fixing his health issues." Severus answered. "Can you feel for magical signature, Lucius?" Lucius could sense magic if he tried hard enough, it wasn't a well-developed skill because his abilities weren't that developed.

"It's hidden rather well, but to be honest it feels like light magic trying to work dark magic." Lucius answered. "I wouldn't be surprised if he created the scar to use as a symbol."

"So we can get rid of it?" Severus wanted to grin, without the scar there would be no link to Harry Potter.

"Yes." Lucius replied. "Narcissa would be able to use one of the more advanced healing spells she uses when someone gets hit with a dark curse." 

"Set it up. Also the blood adoption. We have the next ten years to get everything set up and ready for when they discover Harry is missing. Lucius will be able to become Chief Warlock, if we assign the seats all of ours, to him, in proxy."

"I already did it, Ironclaw will be sending Lucius the information, and he buried it under the Peverell line." Severus explained. 

"Good, let's get Narcissa in here and fix the scar, we can do the blood adoption tomorrow. Severus, would you mind if Narcissa watches Hadrian, with Draco, while we make the potion." The Dark Lord touched Hadrian's scar. "Sly old fart, I am glad that Lily got in touch with me."

"So am I." Severus replied.

***************************************End Flashback***************

Hadrian with Draco walked into the Lucius' study with the Dark Lord, smiling at them. "We got our letters." Draco held up their letters.

Hadrian walked over to Severus and handed him the letter. "Dad, you want to run some spells to check it? Uncle Marvolo said it would be a good idea."

"I did the envelope." The Dark Lord told them. "Found spells on both of their envelopes. I warned Vernon already." He sat down. "General compulsion spell for Hadrian to go to Gryffindor and Draco to Slytherin."

"Gryffindor?" Horror laced the boys' voices. 

Severus finally recovered. "He really wants Hadrian to be friends with Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. He has been pushing Ron Weasley on Hadrian every chance he had last year, usually, it was just a few times during the summer before the new school year started or after the end of the school year. Last year the Weasley family was there the Yule holiday. It was one of the reasons he tried to force us to stay."

"All he talks about is how evil Slytherins are and Quidditch, he has an IQ of a fish." Hadrian told them. "He keeps insulting Draco too." He didn't like Ron Weasley, but he was always polite to him. He knew his father wouldn't want him to be rude to anyone.

"You both handled him wonderfully, I was very proud of you. Neither of you fell into fighting with Mr. Weasley despite how annoying the little ingrate was." Severus remarked. He had wanted to give the brat a few detentions for the treatment of his son and his words towards his son but Hadrian handled Ron Weasley and his attitude wonderfully.

"I have a feeling Mr. Weasley will be losing a lot of points in your class." The Dark Lord responded. 

"Like you aren't planning on it too." Hadrian commented. Severus wanted to shake his head, only Hadrian could get away with speaking to the Dark Lord like that. They may not call him my Lord or Master any longer, but they knew better than to show disrespect. Draco certainly couldn't speak to the Dark Lord the way his son did. The Dark Lord didn't hurt Draco but he did punish him by putting in a corner for thirty minutes the one time Draco tried to speak to the man like Hadrian did. 

The Dark Lord grinned. "I plan on doing a lot of things. Let your father open your envelopes and remove your letters." They watched Severus and Lucius opened the letters and start casting spells on it. They watched the letters flash and then they dispelled the spells. "That is certainly interesting." 

"More compulsion spells for the house selections." Severus informed them. "We know he has done it before. I wouldn't be surprised if there would be a few more this year, forcing certain people into Gryffindor."

"I don't have to go to Gryffindor, do I?" Hadrian asked, horrified. He knew Ron Weasley would go to Gryffindor, just because his family all went into that house.

"No, you will be with my snakes, like my son would go anyplace else." Severus pulled him into his arms, he knew his son was getting too big to pull into his lap and hug him like he did when he was little but he knew Hadrian loved it when he did, as he never resisted like Draco did when Lucius tried it. 

The Dark Lord grinned, this year was going to be interesting.


	3. Hogwarts

"So how did Hagrid explain Dudley not being able to get into the Potter vaults?" The Dark Lord was in his office, meeting with Lucius and Severus concerning the upcoming year.

"He didn't. When Dumbledore asked how Dudley paid for his stuff, he told them that Vernon provided the funds, so Dudley didn't go down to the vaults. Now the confusing part is, he asked Hagrid if Dudley knew about the package that he had him pick up. When Hagrid smiled and said no, Dumbledore looked a bit put out by it. Dumbledore already has us working on different defense for whatever he wants to protect." Severus told them.

"Sounds like he is going to set up trials for Harry to go through." Lucius stated. "Hagrid wasn't subtle at Gringotts. A few people heard him asking about the vault."

"So he is putting the Philosopher's Stone in Hogwarts." The Dark Lord stated. "Well, we know why we just need to make sure none of the boys fall prey to their plots."

"He will be using Weasley." Severus stated. 

"Yes, he will, to bad for Dumbledore, that the boys don't care for the brat." The Dark Lord grinned.

______________________________________________________________________________________

"What is Weasley doing?" Blaise asked as they watched the redhead go by their compartment again.

"Looking for Harry Potter." Dudley answered. "His family was by the platform entrance waiting for Harry, kept mentioning muggles and platform 9 3/4." Dudley knew what was happening and like his father and uncles, he was going to enjoy tormenting Albus Dumbledore.

"They really believe you are him?" Draco wondered how they could work that to their favor before they got to Hogwarts, he glanced at Hadrian, who was smirking. "You have an idea?"

"Dud, you up for playing Harry Potter?"

Dudley grinned, he opened the compartment door and moved to the empty one across from them. He tilted his head and Hadrian cast a listening charm on Dudley before the doors were closed. They waited for the redhead to finally spot Dudley sitting by himself. "Excuse me, do you mind? Everywhere else is full."

"Not at all." Dudley replied, knew the boy had seen the empty compartment and knew there were a ton of others empty.

"I'm Ron by the way. Ron Weasley." Ron took a seat on the same side as Dudley was sitting on. Ron had already been shown a picture of what Harry looked like and knew this was him. 

"Dudley Dursley." Dudley wondered what Ron would say next. After years of listening to Draco and his own cousin tell stories about Ron, he knew he fully in the grip of Dumbledore.

"I heard you were Harry before, so is it true! I mean, do you really have the, the..."

"The what?"

"Scar?" 

Dudley pulled back his shirt sleeve on his right arm. "Don't know how you knew about it, but I got it when I was five when I was learning to ride my bike. I took it out one day when my dad wasn't around and I ended up hitting the house and put my arm through the window. Thankfully my dad was inside and heard the crash." 

"Oh." Ron didn't mean that scar and glanced at Dudley's head, but there wasn't a scar there. 

A woman appeared at the open door. "Something off of the trolley dears?" 

Dudley stood up and could see his friends and cousin were stilling listening, he pulled out a few galleons and bought a lot of things off of the woman. "You too, dear?"

"No, thanks, I'm all set." Ron held up a brown bag that had his sandwich in it. 

Dudley got a wicked idea. "We'll take a lot!" Dudley dumped everything on the seat between them and sat down. He knew he wasn't going to be eating much of it, his father would kill him. Ron was eating the food, talking with his mouth full. Dudley listened as Ron tried to do magic, but failed at each attempt.

"Woah! You got Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans." 

"Every flavor?" Dudley heard about them from Draco and Hadrian, but the three of them weren't big on candy, Dudley thought it was because of the Headmaster and his love of candy, their parents were more along the line of giving them homemade goodies for treats. 

"They mean every flavor! There are chocolate and peppermint and also, spinach, liver, and tripe. George swore he got boogie-flavored one once. I wouldn't trust anything the twins say, however, they love to prank everyone." Ron picked up a Chocolate Frog.

Dudley took one and looked at it. "These aren't real frogs, are they?" Dudley knew they weren't, he had enough of their cards, so did Hadrian and Draco. 

"I's just a spell. Besides, it's the cards you want. Each pack's got a famous witch or wizard. I got about 500 myself."

Dudley opened one and watched it jump onto the train window. "Watch it! That's rotten luck. They've only got one good jump in them, to begin with."

"I've got Dumbledore!" He really tried to act excited about it, hoping the boy didn't notice he really wasn't.

"I've got about 6 of him, he's considered a common card." 

"Hey, he's gone!" He was enjoying playing a muggle, he could see his friends and cousin were enjoying his little act.

"Well you can't expect him to hang around all day, can you? This is Scabbers by the way. Pathetic, isn't he?" Ron pointed to the rat who had its head currently buried in a bag of treats, the thing looked fat and lazy. 

"Just a little bit." Dudley hoped the thing stayed away from him. He didn't want to even think about having some old rat near him. While he didn't mind his Uncle's rats, something was off with the one in Ron's lap.

"Fred gave me a spell to turn him yellow. Want to see?" He was waving his wand around, eager to do some magic.

"Yeah!" Dudley could see his friends in the compartment opposite him and knew they were trying not to laugh. They had been trained in magic since they were seven when they got their training wands. 

"Ahem. Sun.." They stop talking as a girl stepped into their doorway. She was clearly a first year, her hair was bushy and she carried an air of superiority about her.

"Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one." She looked at Ron and glanced at Dudley. "Oh, you are doing magic? Let's see then."

Ron shrugged and aimed his wand at Scabbers. "Ahem. Sunshine Daisies butter mellow turn this stupid fat rat yellow."

"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it? Of course, I've only tried a few simple ones myself but they've all worked for me." She aimed her wand at Ron. "Scourgify, now you have a clean shirt, you had chocolate on it. I'm Hermione Granger. And you are?"

Dudley decided right there he didn't like the girl, she was too bossy and reminded him of his mother with her attitude. He also wondered how a Muggle-born, as she clearly was one, was able to do spells since it was forbidden by the Statute of Secrecy and as a Muggle-born, she wasn't to do magic in front of muggles. He looked at his cousin and realized they were thinking about it also. "I am Ron Weasley, he's Harry Potter."

"I am not. I am Dudley Dursley, I have no idea why people keep thinking I am him. He was my cousin." Dudley said. He couldn't wait to show them he wasn't Harry Potter, and get them to wondering what happened to the real Harry Potter.

"We understand, you want to keep who you are a secret a bit longer, but it will come out during the sorting." Ron told him. Dudley wanted to smack the idiot. The rest of the ride was annoying, to say the least.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Dudley climbed into the same boat that Hadrian, Draco, and Blaise were in. "Don't ever leave me with that moron again." Dudley warned, causing the three of them to laugh as he said it.

"I am wondering about Granger. I think she is another of Dumbledore's plants." Hadrian stated. "She was using magic, well enough to cast and control her spells."

"We will mention it to the Uncles." Blaise calmly looked around. "She seems a bit bossy."  
____________________________________________________________________________________________

The small group of friends was standing together with Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle. "She is now lecturing Susan Bones on the Great Hall ceiling and Hogwarts." Blaise quietly told them.

"Great, a know it all. Dad is going to love her." Hadrian remarked, he knew his father wouldn't like the girl if she tried that attitude in his classes. He also knew the Dark Lord wasn't going to want to listen to her either. He could see his father and the Dark Lord were watching the incoming students. 

"Dursley, Dudley" Minerva called and watched Dudley walk up to the stool, he looked just as she remembered him, she didn't think he was a wizard but he was and was happy that Harry would have his cousin with him. 

"Ah, Mr. Dursley, everyone thinks you are Mr. Potter, but I can clearly see you aren't." The Sorting Hat said. "Now, let's see, oh, yes, I agree, Gryffindor isn't a good match, but I do know where you belong and you will thrive. Let it be-" The Hat shouted "Ravenclaw." 

Dudley got off of the stool to polite clapping and headed to the table. He saw his friends and cousin give him a thumbs up as he took his seat. 

"Granger, Hermione." Minerva called and watched the girl walk towards her. She was a Ravenclaw, she knew that the minute she spoke to the girl. She watched and waited as the Hat and Ms. Granger seemed to be having a bit of a debate, she hoped the girl wasn't going to fight her sorting.

"Fine, yes, yes, I said fine. Let it be Gryffindor." The Hat shouted, but clearly not happy with the sorting. 

"Dumbledore's work." The Dark Lord quietly told Severus, who agreed.

"Longbottom, Neville." They all watched Neville as he walked towards the stool, he almost fell off of the stool as the hat was placed on his head, but it wasn't there long before they heard "let it be Hufflepuff." 

"His grandmother is going to have a fit, you would think she would be happy he wasn't a squib." Severus said to the Dark Lord.

"The poor boy." The Dark Lord muttered, not too loud, but he did feel bad for the boy. He knew the Lestrange family got the blame for Neville's parents but he also knew they didn't do it on their own. Someone had to have put them up to it.

"Malfoy, Draco." They watched Draco strut up to the stool and before the Hat was even placed on his head was screaming "Slytherin."

"That wasn't a surprise." Severus grinned at the Dark Lord's remark, they watched a few more, no surprises came about. "Potter, Harry." 

They heard the whispers, "he's here?" "where is he?" "I didn't see him." After several more minutes, Minerva repeated herself again. Dumbledore stood up and looked down the line of students but none of them looked like a Potter, he looked at Dudley, but Minerva quietly said, "he looks just like he did when he was a toddler."

"Continue on." Dumbledore told her. He would have to pay a visit to the Dursley home and find out what happened to Harry Potter. He had sent numerous letters since the owls couldn't find him. He had hoped that Dudley Dursley was Harry Potter, but the boy didn't even come close to looking like a Potter. 

"Snape, Hadrian." Dumbledore quickly cast a nonverbal compulsion charm on the boy. He needed him to be in Gryffindor. He wanted him to become friends with Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

Hadrian felt the compulsion charm hit, but his necklace kept it from affecting him. He sat down on the stool and before the hat even made it near him started screaming "Slytherin, Slytherin, he is Slytherin." Hadrian now owed the Sorting Hat a good cleaning, he hoped Fawkes was up to delivering Hat to him. He grinned at his dad as he walked to the Slytherin table.

"I can't believe he got the hat to do that." Severus said as he saw the Dark Lord was grinning at his son. 

"I owe him one hundred galleons now." The Dark Lord told Severus. "I wonder how he got the hat to agree?"

Severus just looked at the Dark Lord, and both returned to watching the rest of the sorting, nothing unexpected happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dialogue is from the script of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.


	4. Classes

Hadrian, Blaise, and Draco were watching the owls drop the morning mail off. They gave each other a quick grin when they saw Dudley receive a letter. Hadrian glanced up to his father, who inclined his head. "Up for visiting our favorite claws?" Hadrian asked his group of friends. 

Blaise picked up his own letter. "Lets." Draco just took a piece of bacon and the three of them, with Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent headed to the Ravenclaw table. 

"Dursley, I see you got the house you wanted." Hadrian greeted his cousin. A few of the other claws moved down a bit to allow the snakes to sit. Last night, before the feast, everyone agreed to remain friends. They would rotate to the different tables to make sure everyone got a chance to sit with their own house. "Longbottom, you joining us?" 

Neville, shocked at the invite, just turned around and moved to the table. The group of new friends spent the morning speaking about their sorting, Hogwarts in general and what classes would be like. They were a bit surprised when Granger and Weasley, suddenly sat down, uninvited. "We need a review schedule. If everyone just gives me a copy of their timetable I can have one setup. I will set up the times, books we will need, of course, we need to have a few hours for each subject. I will also review any assignments. I can see if the professor will give us extra credit work too." Granger stated, pulling out a quill, ink, and parchment.

They all heard the quiet whispering about the lack of manners. "Did she even breath?" Padma asked Neville, who just shook his head, no, clearly trying to figure out why Granger and Weasley were suddenly sitting with them.

"Who are you?" Pansy asked she could see no one was impressed with the girl's attitude. Most of the Slytherins grew up together with Dudley joining them. They all knew they had to pretend they didn't know Dudley at first, thankfully it would only be for the weekend at the most.

"What is extra credit?" Longbottom, Padma, as well as a few of the other pure-blood asked, "why do you want to review our assignments?" They were Ravenclaws for a reason.

"Hermione Granger, and this is Ronald Weasley." Granger elbowed Weasley, who did a bit of a winch and let out a small bit of air as the elbow hit his stomach. "I have read all the course books for the year, have you?"

"A bit violent, isn't she?" Terry Boot asked, earning a few nods of agreement. 

"Look, Granger, if we need help, we can ask Hadrian's father. We all have read our books, at least the first few chapters. I know for a fact Hadrian, Pansy, and a few others, including me, have read these books last year and have reviewed them again over the summer." Draco stated. He saw Hadrian was clearly watching Granger and Weasley. 

"Why are they bothering us?" Millicent looked around Granger and could see Greg and Vincent were heading towards them. "Greg and Vincent need your seats, you took theirs."

"I am sure people can move down." Granger stated. "Plenty of room." 

Ignoring how crowded the table was already. Many barely had room to move their arms because of Granger spreading her stuff out, moving their plates and cups out of the way in the process. Hadrian noticed the looks of surprise on people's faces.

"I am sure the upper years, and the rest of the claws, don't want to sit on the floor or move since it's their table." Hadrian responded. He could see his father and Marvolo were watching them, as well as Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Flitwick. He knew Dumbledore had a hand in them being at this table this morning. They hadn't had a chance to talk to his father about the Harry Potter situation or even see what Uncle Vernon had written.

"They were the ones yesterday on the train that kept thinking I was Harry, even when I told them I was his cousin." Dudley spoke. Last night in the common room, he made sure to tell everyone what happened on the train, including the spell Weasley had tried to cast, that got him a few laughs.

"Oh, they are those types." Pansy smirked. She knew what her words would do and so did the others.

"What type are we?" Granger snapped.

"Fame mongers, stalkers, crazed fans? Pick one, I am sure it will apply." Dudley stated. "Just stay away from me."

"Snake. Traitor." Weasley spat at Dudley. "You know your Harry Potter." 

"Snake? I am not Harry, he is my cousin, though I can honestly tell you I have never met anyone named Harry." Dudley looked around, pretending to be confused. This was going to be fun, as he knew Hadrian was going to do something fun.

"You know Dursley, Slytherins, it seems we have a bigot here. Weasley here doesn't like those in Slytherins, I have no idea why he is calling you a traitor. As far as I know, muggle-borns aren't traitors, but I believe he's as sharp as a bowling ball." Hadrian responded. He didn't look up at the head table, no one could hear them speaking over the vast number of voices talking.

Granger gasped as Weasley asked "bowling ball?"

"He's calling you stupid, Ron." Granger snapped out. "We're not bigots, how does a pure-blood like you know about bowling balls?" She knew his father was Professor Snape, Dumbledore had warned her not to make an enemy out of him or his friends, but from Ron's words, it was going to take a lot of effort on her part.

"No, I am not. If I was going to challenge his intelligence I would just state that." Hadrian remarked. 

"You did too. A bowling ball is round, and therefore can't have any sharp edges, so therefore you said he was stupid." Granger smugly stated.

"Wrong, Granger, stupidity doesn't equal being sharp. There are a variety of ways to determine a person's intelligence. There are those you are common sense smart, but not street smart or book smart and the same could be said in a variety of combination of those types of intelligence. You appear to only book smart and want to push your book smart and righteous of books down others throats. Setting up a review schedule based on what you want, wanting to review our assignments, as if you are the smartest out of all of us, without even knowing anything about us but the really annoying thing is this, telling us you want us to get extra credit assignments to do." He paused "I will give you a warning. When my father says he wants twenty inches on an assignment, that is exactly what he wants, you give him more, he won't read it and will take points off for it. Professors have to spend their free time reading what you write. The time that they don't have, so when they give you an assignment, they want exactly that."

"They don't give extra credit. If you need tutoring or help in your practicals, they will provide it. Do yourself a favor and realize this is the magical world, not the muggle." Terry Boot stated. "Professor Flitwick explained it last night to us. He also allows us to form our own study groups, we don't need you to assign us a study group."

"Figures you pure-bloods would stick together." Weasley snarled. "Bunch of Death Eaters all sitting together doesn't matter what house you are in, you're all evil. I can't wait for Harry here to learn the truth."

"You're wrong." Padma stated. "Terry is half-blood, Dudley is a muggle-born, and few of the others are pure-bloods, yes, but you see, in this group blood doesn't mean a thing. It's clear that it matters to you."

"What truth?" Dudley asked, wondering what drugs Weasley was taking.

"We know your Harry Potter, just admit it already." Granger stated. "Just because you go by Dudley Dursley doesn't mean you aren't him. You did a great thing, you should be proud of it. What about your parents? Are you rejecting them? They died for you." She missed the looks of fury from the students.

Dudley stood up, he slammed his hand down on the table. "For the last time, I am not Harry Potter, he is my cousin. I have never met anyone named Harry. My parents are Vernon Dursley and Petunia Evans. I don't have any siblings and I don't know where Harry Potter is. Harry's parents did die for him, as for the rest of your questions, I can tell you they were out of line. How dare you mention Harry's parents? How dare you say I am rejecting them? When they are only my aunt and uncle, who I never meet. They certainly didn't die for me. They died defending their home and their son. They didn't stick a huge billboard on their house saying "we are here, come and get us". They didn't want to die and you have no right to even mention them."

"Mr. Dursley, is there a problem?" Professor Flitwick, with Professor Snape and McGonagall next to him asked. Everyone was staring at the small group of friends, most of the Ravenclaws would be making sure everyone heard exactly what lead up to this explosion.

"Yes, those two come over here, tell us how it's going to be for group studying, not even asking if we wanted to join them. Proceeded to call us snakes and traitors, and when I said repeatedly I am not Harry Potter, I got told I need to admit that I am, basically being called a liar." Dudley stated. "I have no idea why I am a traitor, or who I have betrayed. I don't want to be around such bigots. They actually called us all pure-bloods bigots and Death Eaters, we got told we are evil."

"We did not." Granger stated. "It's easy to explain."

"Please explain your version." Professor Flitwick stated. The students weren't aware that they had been listening to the conversation for a while and they felt it was time to interrupt it, they were on their way to them when Dudley stood up. The three professors listened as Granger told them what happened, with her leaving off the part about coming over there and wanting to set up the study group and a few other key parts. 

"Well, they started it." Granger finished, her bossy and know it all attitude clear in her voice.

Hadrian glared. "Professor Flitwick, she left out a few major things, and I would be willing to submit my memory of it, as I know the others will also back on this, when I tell you they came over here, as you can see by her stuff on the table, pushing their way into our group and set out the way she wanted it to be. Weasley was the one who was insulting us. How he arrived, erroneously, at the idea of all us being pure-bloods I have no idea. I do object to being called a traitor and Death Eater, some of us are snakes and that is the only truthful thing Weasley uttered. I did point out that Weasley is about as sharp as a bowling bowl and Granger proceeded to inform Weasley I called him stupid, which I explained the difference being stupid versus sharp."

If anyone had any doubt whose son Hadrian was, they didn't after that. 

"Actually, Mr. Snape, we are aware of exactly what happened, as we were listening from the point of you mentioning a bowling ball." McGonagall. "Detention Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley for the next week, ten points Mr. Weasley for the insults, five points each from Gryffindor for accusing Mr. Dursley of being Harry Potter. I can tell you Mr. Dursley isn't Harry Potter."

When Weasley went to argue about the detention. "Professor McGonagall is being easy since it's not even the first day of classes, if it happens again, I can guarantee you I will remove a lot more points and add a month of detention." Professor Flitwick while he was known as the carefree professor, he was well known for his dislike of people referencing blood purity.

"I do believe it's all a slight misunderstanding." Dumbledore stated from behind the group. "Clearly Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger were eager to help and it was a misunderstanding about intentions."

"No it wasn't." Dudley stated. "I told them on the train I wasn't Harry. They refused to listen then and now."

"You're Harry." Weasley stated. 

"What would it take to prove to you that I am not Harry? A blood test?" Dudley asked. His father and Uncle Severus had warned Hadrian and him that they would find a way to get him to take an Inheritance Test.

"I believe, Mr. Dursley, that an Inheritance Test would solve the problem." Dumbledore saw the look Minerva gave him. She had already told him the boy in front of them wasn't Harry but since he had no idea where Harry was and he knew, for a fact, that Vernon and Petunia weren't magical that this couldn't be their son. The Inheritance Test would solve their bet.

"Fine, what do I need to do?" Dudley asked. 

"It's a simple ritual, it just needs three drops of your blood, on a special piece of parchment." Severus explained. Last night, after the feast, Severus and Minerva had been summoned to Dumbledore's office. Minerva explained how Dudley looked exactly as he did as a child, of course, grown up a bit. 

"Come to Infirmary, we will do now." Dumbledore stated.

"Can my friends come?" Dudley asked. 

"I don't think that is a good idea." Dumbledore stated.

"Why? I will tell them anyway." Dudley smirked. "I know I am not Harry Potter and I will willing to show everyone I am not him."

"Fine." Dumbledore smiled, but anyone who knew the man knew he wasn't happy about it. "I am sure Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley will be there?"

"If it will shut them up." Dudley retorted. Severus and Minerva hid their smirks. Hadrian walked over to his father and Severus put a hand on his shoulder. The Dark Lord had his napkin covering his face, their simple little plan worked.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Last night:

 

Dumbledore had looked at some gadgets and they were chugging away. It was all Severus could do not to laugh at the man's distressed face, knowing they were working because the blood wards were tied to Dudley, not his son. The blood wards were the reason that Dudley's magic manifested itself. 

Dumbledore slumped in his seat. "We need to find Harry Potter. Are you sure Dudley isn't Harry?" He asked again.

"Yes, I watched that house all day. I have to say compared to how he was a child to now, it's a vast improvement." Minerva responded.

Severus was inclined to agree. It took a few months of Petunia not being around Dudley for Dudley to stop being a brat. When Dudley lost the weight, got good attention and positive reinforcement, Dudley became a happy well-adjusted child. For the first few years, after he returned from visiting Petunia, it would take a day or two for him to adjust, but as he grew up, Dudley preferred not to visit his mother. When Dudley told her that, she threw a fit and hit him. Dudley called his father and Vernon got her visitation rights amended. Dudley only spent a few hours each Sunday with her, and now since he was in boarding school, he would only have to spend one day a month with her during the summer and a few hours during any school holiday.

"We need a way to confirm who he is." Dumbledore muttered but Minerva and Severus both heard him.

"Albus, he is Dudley Dursley." Minerva stated. "I will make a wager, if he's Dudley, you will leave him alone, no meddling, if he is Harry, I won't meddle." She looked at Severus "can you do the potion?"

"Yes. I can have it ready in the morning." Severus didn't bother to tell them he had already brewed it. They knew Dumbledore was going to want to make sure Dudley was Dudley.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Infirmary:

As they were walking Draco whispered to Dudley: "did you get time to read your letter?"

"No. I will after this. I know it's from my Dad." Dudley let Draco know he was correct. Dudley had written home last night, telling Vernon about the train and his sorting. 

Granger and Weasley walked close to each other, while the small group of Slytherins, with Terry, Padma, Neville, and Dudley talked quietly among themselves as they walked. Most of the talk was about pranking the two Gryffindors.

They all watched Dudley add his three drops of blood into a potion phial, Severus shook it, mixing it well. Severus laid out the special parchment, that Poppy had retrieved from her supplies. Severus knew that the witch kept a few sheets for when they discovered abused children and needed to find them a blood relation to an adopt the child. He poured the potion over the parchment and everyone watched as the test was completed.

Dudley Ian Dursley  
Date of birth 23 June 1980

Father: Vernon Dursley (squib-family line of Nicholas)  
Mother: Petunia Evans (squib-family line of Evans)

Paternal Grandfather: Bruce Vernon Dursley  
Paternal Grandmother: Veronica Ruth Dursley nee Compton (squib family line of Compton)

Maternal Grandfather: Henry Jacob Evans (squib-family line of Evans)  
Maternal Grandmother: Rose Gloria Evans need Picket

Heir:

none

Title:

none

"He's not Harry." Dumbledore muttered, but it was heard. 

"I told you I wasn't." Dudley stated. "Now keep those two away from me." Dudley picked up the parchment, folded it, held out his hand to Severus, who gave him a slight smile as he put the phial in Dudley's hand. Together the group of friends left the Infirmary as they heard Weasley say "you said he was Potter."


	5. Chapter 5

Dudley tried to hide his grin as they were leaving the Infirmary but he knew he failed. Hadrian walked next to him and quietly said, "that took care of them, for now."

"Yes, but you know they won't give up." Dudley replied, he looked back and noticed it was still just the people they would and could count as friends. 

Draco joined them as he nudged Dudley. "We have all weekend to prank them, any ideas?"

"I have a few." Hadrian stated. "Father's personal lab is free. He mentioned having to do some research when I saw him before breakfast." Hadrian looked back and saw Neville was hanging back and not really talking to anyone. "Neville, how would like to join us down in my father's lab?" 

"He would let me?" Neville asked, a bit surprised. He didn't think anyone was allowed in Professor Snape's lab. 

"Yes, he knows we will be there." Hadrian reassured him. 

Meanwhile:

"You said he was Harry Potter." Weasley whined again.

"I told you he wasn't." McGonagall stated. "I expect you to follow our bet, no meddling."

"How? He must have done something." Dumbledore muttered.

"Are you doubting my potion making skills?" Severus snarled. "We have been telling you he wasn't Potter. Give it up."

"My dear boy, I wasn't doubting your skills, but we need to find Harry Potter." Dumbledore looked at the results again. "The blood wards are working based off of Dudley." He added.

"Since they have the same family line it would make sense." McGonagall replied. 

"How do you plan on finding Potter now?" Severus asked. He knew it was going to be some hairbrained idea.

"I believe I need to go back to Godric's Hollow and see if I can find something there. He might even be one of our Muggle-born students." Dumbledore explained.

McGonagall huffed. "None of them even remotely look like Harry. Harry looked like James with his mother's eyes. While we have a lot of dark hair children, none of them have Lily's eyes."

Severus had always been saddened by the fact that Harry had lost Lily's full eye color but what he knew about how Petunia was like, he would do it again, well, he also loved his son. "For anything from the Potter's house to work, it will need to be fresh. Time and the magical residue would have damaged anything you could use." 

Dumbledore sighed. "We have to find him. I will go and speak to the Dursleys and find out why they don't have Harry. Maybe they might even have something from when he was there."

Severus couldn't wait to see what Vernon would do to Dumbledore. He was looking forward to the memory. "Severus, I need you to come with me." Severus almost clapped his hands in glee. He knew Vernon was going to have a field day with Dumbledore. 

"Certainly." Severus glanced at McGonagall. The woman's lips were pressed together and he had a feeling she wasn't going to make it easy for Dumbledore.

"You said you wouldn't meddle. Yet, not even ten minutes later you are doing it."

"Minerva, we need to find him. He might be in danger." 

"You mean you want him so that you can keep track of him and make sure that stupid prophecy is fulfilled." McGonagall snapped. "It was, I told you that eleven years ago and I am telling it to you now."

Severus looked at her, wondering what he was missing. He only knew part of it and he didn't think Dumbledore would have told McGonagall the complete prophecy. "Minerva, I never told you the complete prophecy, and I won't. Needless to say, we need Harry."

McGonagall just glared and stormed away. At the doors to the Infirmary, she stated, "no you didn't, but Sybill is mighty free with the telling of it."

Severus froze. That wasn't a good statement to make. He wished McGonagall had kept her mouth shut. "Sybill has been speaking about this?" Dumbledore asked. Severus looked at the man and he could see the fury in the man eyes.

"Yes, every Halloween, when she is drunk enough to remember she isn't to tell anyone." McGonagall smirked and left the Infirmary. Severus wanted to give Gryffindor points for the exit alone, never mind the smirk.

"That isn't good. If it got out." Dumbledore muttered. 

"It is out. From Minerva's words, the prophecy is fulfilled." 

"It's can't be. Voldemort will return. Harry has to vanquish him."

"You do know the meaning of the word vanquish?" Severus asked. He knew the prophecy was fulfilled. He had known it for years when they had arranged for a trip to the Ministry. While Vernon had arranged for Dudley to be registered as a wizard, for protection from Dumbledore, Severus went to the Hall of Prophecies. 

*******************Flashback*************************

Severus, carrying Harry, walked up to the security counter in the Hall of Prophecies. "Can I help you?" A young wizard asked.

"Yes, I would like to ask a few questions before I continue with my business." Severus stated he had given Harry a biscuit to keep him from speaking while he was asking questions. "Is there any type of privacy wards around here to keep personal information personal?"

"Yes, we aren't even allowed to know if there is a prophecy for anyone asking. All we can do is provide you with the spell and the ritual to see if there is. We escort you to a small ritual room, allowing you time to complete the ritual. If there is a prophecy it will appear."

"If the prophecy is filled?"

"It will still be in there. All prophecies are kept in there. If it's been fulfilled, it moves to the completed side of the room. If the people who the prophecy is about are aware of the prophecy they will receive a magical message regarding it."

"If they aren't aware? Or if one person is, but anyone else involved isn't?"

"Only the ones aware will receive the message." 

Severus thought how would the Dark Lord know if it was fulfilled if he was still out there? He knew Dumbledore believed that, based off of his mark. So that would mean that if the Dark Lord returned he would know it was complete and wouldn't come after his son. "Will anyone know I have been here?"

"No, completely private. We don't even ask your name."

"May I check?"

"Certainly, the fee is 1 Galleon to cover the cost of the materials used." The young wizard stated. 

Severus paid the fee and followed the wizard to the ritual room. "Now, it's just like an Inheritance Test at Gringotts. It needs three drops of blood, in the potion. Once the potion turns sky blue, stir five times counter-clockwise. Wait until the potion turns deep blue, then pour it into the bowl. The bowl has ground up doxie wings, pixie dust, dragon's blood, and frog's liver. Once everything is absorbed, strain it, and then pour it over the parchment."

Severus arched his brow. "I didn't think the Regency Potion could be used like that."

"Yes, it's the only one." The wizard replied. "Time wise the whole ritual will take about ten minutes."

"Thank you for your assistance." Severus replied. 

"You're welcome. Just let me know when you leave, so I can clean up the residue magic."

Severus put Harry on the floor, handed him his teddy bear, and started to arrange things. He inspected all the ingredients and when he was satisfied he picked Harry up. "Hadrian, Daddy needs a bit of your blood. Remember when I asked before?"

Harry nodded as he looked at the table. "Potions." 

"Yes, a potion. Can you hold a finger up for me? I will heal it right away."

Severus put Harry down as the potion began to combine. He followed the directions and at the end, he got an orb with a tag saying "Harry Potter/Voldemort -Tom Riddle-Complete," He smiled as vanquished the ritual and the orb returned to where it came from. 

"Let's go and find your Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley." He had some more plans to make.

**************End Flashback*****************************

He walked with Dumbledore down the halls and was almost out of Hogwarts when his wards alerted him to someone in his lab. "I need to go and check my private lab. I believe my son has entered it."

"I will meet you at the apparition point." Dumbledore told him.

Severus walked to his lab and opened the door to find his son and friends in the lab. "I see you are already working on something."

"Of course." Harry grinned at him. "Meet my new helper, Neville Longbottom."

"Mr. Longbottom." Severus greeted Neville. He knew Harry would keep Neville from being used in place of Harry Potter. "I am heading out to see your father, Mr. Dursley, do you want me to pass a message?"

"No, I will write to him tonight, thank you, Professor Snape." 

Severus tilted his head. "Remember don't get caught."

"Dad, have some faith in me." Harry replied.

"I do, otherwise, you wouldn't be in here creating." Severus looked at the ingredients and at the cauldron. "Yes, I do believe that will be an interesting sight to see." 

Harry grinned. "We will make sure to get pictures."

"I look forward to the results." Severus gave him a kiss on the top of his head. "I will see you at dinner."

"Later, Dad." Harry said as he returned to the potion.

Severus left as he heard, "I didn't think your dad would be so cool. I heard he was tough and hated students." 

"Dad is tough, hates it when you don't study or do your lessons, but he doesn't hate students. He is strict in his class so people don't get hurt. He is the same way with the rules and pranks. As long as no one gets hurt he is fine with them, which is why we are doing the hair changing potion. Don't do anything stupid in his class and he is fine." Harry replied.

Severus smiled, his son had his number and he knew it would spread not to do anything stupid in his class. Harry had been telling that to students for years and it worked, along with his death glare as Harry called it.


	6. Vernon and Marge

Marge was sitting down, watching her newest favorite on the telly. Ripper was sleeping by her feet, and Vernon was reading the evening paper. "You know they are going to come." Marge had warned last night. 

"Yes, Severus already said we should expect Dumbledore. He most likely will be looking for Petunia." Vernon wasn't the man he was when he was married to Petunia. He kept in shape now, eat right, exercise. He knew he would never be called handsome but he wasn't ashamed of how he looked either. Marge had fallen in line with the healthier way of life and she was a woman that carried off the classic hourglass figure. She ran every morning with her dogs.

"Best day of your life getting rid of her." Marge stated. "How are the boys doing?" 

"Good, I believe Dudley said he would write this weekend. So I am expecting to see an owl or two this weekend." Vernon lowered his paper as the doorbell rang. He knew who was at the door.

Marge turned and looked out the window. "It's Severus with an old man." 

"That man is Dumbledore. We have to pretend we don't know Severus." Vernon reminded her.

"Yes, yes, I know. All these years we finally get to lay into that old fart." Marge stated. 

Vernon grinned at her as he headed to answer the door. He stopped in the little hall and looked at Marge. When they had their emotions under control, he opened the door. "Hello, can I help you?"

"Mr. Dursley?" Dumbledore asked. Dumbledore didn't bother changing his bright yellow robes for muggle clothing. Severus was wearing black trouser and a black knit jersey.

Vernon knew he was hoping to see Petunia. "Yes."

"May we come in? I need to speak to Ms. Dursley." Dumbledore smiled. "I am Headmaster Dumbledore and this is Professor Snape." He indicated Severus who was standing behind him. Severus tilted his head in acknowledgment.

"Why do you need to speak to my sister? I know you have to be from Hogwarts, as we saw people dressed like you when we took Dudley to get his school stuff." Vernon stated. "You remember Marge, Hogwarts. Dudley is a wizard." He was proud of his son and he knew his voice was filled with that pride.

"I remember, very proud of him. The boy clearly got the Dursley intelligence." Marge was watching Dumbledore closely. She really wanted to sic Ripper on the man who would allow Harry to be abused.

"I mean Petunia Dursley." Dumbledore smiled. 

"There isn't a Petunia Dursley. My ex-wife hasn't lived here for almost ten years. She doesn't have custody of my son, so I don't understand why you would want to speak to her." 

"May we speak inside?" Dumbledore took a step forward. "I am sure you don't want your neighbors to see us."

"Fine, fine, come in. However, I don't care if the neighbors see you but I have a feeling you won't go away until you have had your say." Vernon stated. He really didn't want the old coot in his house, but he knew he had to allow it. The neighbors would talk and he knew that Dumbledore would be speaking to Ms. Figg. However, Ms. Figg was totally and completely useless, for years she thought Dudley was Harry and they didn't even try to tell her differently. 

"Why are they looking for her?" Marge asked. She turned off the telly, and Ripper started growling as Dumbledore entered the room. "Ripper, stay."

"No idea. She has nothing to do with my son." Vernon asked. "Ripper won't bother you." 

"I am here in regards to Harry Potter." Dumbledore stated. He began to look around the house, there wasn't any sign that Harry lived there. The pictures he did see with a child in them, were ones that showed Dudley with his father, his aunt or a combination of the three.

"Who?" Vernon and Marge asked. They couldn't have timed that better.

"Your nephew, Harry Potter." 

"I don't have a nephew." Vernon stated. "Marge never had any children." While he found annoying Dumbledore fun, he was also upset that this man never even checked to see if Harry was here. He wondered what would have happened if he hadn't step in all those years ago. What would Harry had lived like? What would his son be like? Petunia was turning him into a fat, spoiled little bully. He was thankful for his son and nephew each time he saw how that Piers kid turned out.

"I would know if I had, and I certainly wouldn't be his concern." Marge glared. "Are you implying something?" She was enjoying this. She could see Severus was too.

"No, no, please forgive me, it's a slight misunderstanding, which I am sure I can clear up. I am looking for the child of Lily Potter, she was Petunia's sister. He was left here on the night of 31 Oct. 1981." Dumbledore gave them a reassuring smile.

"You gave a child to Petunia? You left a defenseless baby in her arms?" Marge asked, horrified at the idea. "She didn't claw your eyes out before you left? Amazing." She knew Petunia wasn't that bad, but Dumbledore didn't. Petunia didn't have a nice bone in her body.

"No, I left him on the step, wrapped in a blanket with a note." If Dumbledore had looked behind him, he would have seen Severus' stunned face that the man admitted he left a toddler on steps, at night, with just a blanket and a note. Yes, Severus knew the truth, he just didn't think the man would admit it so freely. Did Dumbledore even have the slightest idea of what he did wrong?

"Are you senile?" Vernon's face went red. He didn't have to pretend to be angry about it. "You left a toddler on my steps, wrapped in a blanket, with a note. Do you realize children are walking by then? Do you realize at night the types of animals that would drag off a child thinking it would be a good meal? Never mind leaving the boy with my ex-wife, who would have surely either abused the children or dumped him in an orphanage. You didn't even know me, I could have been abusive for all you knew. What if some type of person might be interested in children for things that are very illegal had seen him? Did you think of any of that when you dropped off a defenseless baby on my doorstep during the night? Did you even think of, oh I don't know, doing the decent thing and knocking on our door and letting us know?" He had been wanting to ask those questions for years. It felt so good to get them off of his chest.

Dumbledore's face paled as Vernon spoke. Marge glared. Severus was restraining himself, as he wanted to add his own opinion of leaving his son here without even checking on him over the years. "Since Petunia was usually up before Vernon, she would have found the child and gotten rid of him, if he was still there in the morning. You know how much she hated her sister. I don't think I ever heard her say a kind word about her or her husband."

"Very true. She never did. I can't tell you the horror stories I heard about their world from her. The only reason why I let Dudley even attend Hogwarts was that I know what kind of spiteful, mean, bigoted, woman she was." Vernon's face was regaining its natural color but he knew his blood pressure was still high because of Dumbledore. "That woman was slowly killing her own child."

"Surely, she can't be all that bad?" Dumbledore asked. "Perhaps if I can speak to her?"

"She isn't even allowed near her own child unless she is supervised. What do you think she would do to a child from her own sister, who she hated?" Vernon glared. "If you want to speak to her I suggest you try that low-cost house development off of King Edward's Blvd. That was the last place she lived at. I am not sure if she is still there. Dudley refused to visit with her this past summer, so I haven't had any contact with her."

"Good riddance." Marge commented. "I believe we should find out who his boss is Vernon. See if they have some kind of school board. What kind of headmaster leaves a baby on a step in the middle of the night? He is in charge of how many children and that is what he does to a defenseless one. Can you image what he does to children who are able to speak or defend themselves?"

"I agree, we need to do something about that. I want to make sure my son is safe." Vernon stated. 

"I can assure you, Mr. Dursley, Hogwarts is the safest school there is." Dumbledore stated. He quickly abandoned any plans he had of using Dudley Dursley as the new Harry Potter. He would need to look elsewhere. Again, if Dumbledore had looked behind him, he would have seen Severus' face, clearly reflecting he was aware of the change of plans concerning Dudley.

"He better be. If he ends up, even once, in the Infirmary, I will be demanding answers." Vernon warned.

"So will I." Marge added. Her neighbor was a wizard, a wizard who wasn't fond of Dumbledore. She was also engaged to the man, they just hadn't announced it as of yet, for they didn't want Dumbledore to connect her name to Dudley.

"Is there anything I should know about concerning my son?" Vernon's eyes harden. His tone had a bit of a warning in it. 

"We did to a verification test on him. It was to show he wasn't Harry Potter." Dumbledore admitted.

"YOU WHAT!!!! How dare you administer a test without my approval." Vernon shouted. He looked like a raging bull and Dumbledore was waving the red flag.

"Your son agreed." Dumbledore tried to smooth things over.

Marge got up. "You need to leave, now." She pointed to the door. "Expect to hear from our barrister." She warned. "Vernon, we will speak to Murray."

"I believe this can all be settled."

"If you don't leave, I am sure Ripper will be glad to encourage it." Marge warned. "Ripper, on guard." Ripper stood up and walked to Marge.

Dumbledore looked at the Bulldog who was growling at him. Severus touched his arm. "Albus, it's time to go."

"Yes, yes I agree. Goodnight Mr. and Ms. Dursley." Dumbledore stated as Ripper started walking them towards the door.

At the door, Severus faced Vernon and Marge. "He will be fine." Marge mouthed.


	7. Dumbledore Confusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Sev reference a Gryffindor, he isn't referencing Neville. Remember the Patil twins are in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. :) that is who is he referencing.

As they returned to Hogwarts, Dumbledore was silent, which Severus was grateful for. He was almost ready to make his escape when it happened. "Severus, a moment in my office please."

Severus kept up his internal rant until he realized that Dumbledore must have asked him something, glanced to the tea cups. "No sugar." 

"We need to find Harry Potter."

"Did you not have anyone watching him?" Severus knew that Figg was there, and the woman was senile and had a weird obsession with cats. He didn't mind cats, but honestly, she had at least twenty too many. He also knew that Dudley had chatted with the woman out of politeness. 

"Yes, but I am afraid Arabella believed Mr. Dursley to be Mr. Potter." Dumbledore looked extremely troubled. Severus saw him glance at the gadgets that were linked to the wards on Privat Dr. and Dudley. He wondered if the man even understood what went wrong. "I am also concerned about your son."

"My son? Why?" Severus wondered where the old coot was heading now. He knew Dumbledore wanted his son to be friends with Weasley for the simple reason that Weasley was an idiot and hot tempered. He also knew Granger wouldn't put up the laziness Weasley had. 

"Aren't you?" 

"No. He is already making friends with some Ravenclaws and even a Gryffindor." He wasn't going to mention it was to prevent Longbottom from being used by Dumbledore. Harry wanted to make sure they, Harry, Dudley, and his close friends, were seen being friends with all houses, so they could protect Neville, who was a Puff.

"The earlier display has me concerned. We need to unite the houses."

"I strongly suggest you give whatever speech you are planning on delivering to my son to Mr. Weasley." Severus wasn't about to allow Gryffindor to do whatever they wanted to his son or his family. Dumbledore appeared surprised by his words but he didn't care. "The display by Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley is something that shouldn't be encouraged. I am also sure that if you try and force Mr. Dursley into the role of Harry Potter, he will not be happy with it."

"I will need you to help get Neville prepared. We can't take a chance that if we don't find Harry, that Neville might be the one the prophecy referred to."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "How do you arrive at that conclusion?"

"He was born the day before Harry." 

"He is unmarked, his family was never attacked by the Dark Lord." Severus could see the man working his way around whatever blocks that might stop Neville by his grandmother. "Also, I do believe Lady Longbottom won't be happy to hear about it either." 

Severus could tell that stopped Dumbledore in his thoughts. "I will get Moody and the members of the Old Crowd to start searching for Harry. I will also find out where the former Mrs. Dursley lives. We need to speak to her."

Severus refrained from smirking they had planted memories of her dumping Harry off in an alley. He knew Dumbledore was going to have a fit when he saw those memories. "If you need anything let me know. Since classes start on Monday, I would like to finish up the potions I need to make for the infirmary." Severus didn't even give him time to respond before he was out the door. He wanted to warn Lucius, make sure that Petunia was ready for Dumbledore's visit. 

____________________________________________________________________

"Hadrian?" Severus found his son and his new friends in his quarters. Granted some of them were old, but he was happy to see Neville Longbottom, Terry Boot, the Patil twins, a few more Claws and Lions too.

"Hi Dad, we just nipped into here to grab some tea." 

"That is fine, as long as it isn't a habit. How did your experiment go?" He saw the grins that were exchanged between the friends. "Just remember-"

"Don't get caught." All of them replied. 

"Ah, my little snakes and snakes in training." Severus summoned some biscuits he had hidden in the pantry. "For a job well done." 

________________________________________________________________________

Everyone was at dinner when Granger and Weasley finally made an appearance. They were dressed in a green cloak, yellow shirt, blue trousers for Weasley and blue skirt for Granger, and red Gryffindor ties. Their hair was divided into the four house colors. Granger and Weasley stormed to their house table where the Twins were laughing the hardest.

"Mr. and Mr. Weasley, please remove the prank from your brother and Ms. Granger." McGonagall said from her seat at the head table. "Detention tomorrow with Mr. Filch."

"We would but we didn't do it." The Twins responded. "However, it was a most worthy one. We give it an 8."

The rest of the students laughed harder. "8? I guess we need to try harder." Hadrian glanced at Draco, and the rest of the first years at his table. He felt they were up for the challenge. 

"Indeed, you do." Severus commented as he handed his son a piece of parchment. "Do remember next time to add a bit more of the mint to get the closer matching green."

"I knew we didn't have it correct." Hadrian looked down at the parchment. He looked up at his father, who raised an eyebrow. Severus walked away and Hadrian handed the note to Draco. The note had one word written on it-Longbottom. 

Draco read the note. He looked over to the Hufflepuff table and could see that Granger and Weasley were sitting on either side of Longbottom. Theo gave them a look as usually at dinner, you had to sit with your own house. They were going to have their work cut out for them.


	8. Chapter 8

The year passed fairly quickly. Neville was welcomed into the group and lost all his nervous energy and gained a lot of confidence. Most of the students sat at their tables for dinner, but otherwise, they mingled. Granger and Weasley always sat at Gryffindor, as most really couldn't stand them. Severus made sure to keep the children out of everything. 

Severus and Lucius kept an active eye on the events happening at Hogwarts. Dumbledore was clearly upset when nothing happened on Halloween. The Dark Lord and Severus noticed how tense the man was during the feast, and glancing around the room. Mostly staring at the muggle-born students. Severus knew he was trying to picture Harry Potter in their features.

Yule passed with everyone at Malfoy Manor. Old and new friends were visiting, including Neville Longbottom and his Grandmother. She spent a few days at Malfoy Manor for the ball, and as she said, getting ready for it, and recovering from it. Lady Longbottom was a stern woman but she loved her grandson and was amazed at the difference in him. She had been approached by Dumbledore regarding the prophecy but she warned Dumbledore from involving her grandson. 

When the new term started, Dumbledore looked exhausted. He had been spending most of his time searching for ways to find Harry Potter. The staff and those students sensitive to magic felt the changes in the wards. Minerva explained that Dumbledore was just building up the wards for extra protection. The Dark Lord and Severus examined the wards and instead noticed that he was trying to use blood to find Harry Potter. 

"How does he expect this new ward to work?" Severus wasn't afraid to admit he was a bit confused by this new ward

"I am not sure. Unless he is using James and Lily's blood, combined, to see if he can locate Harry, but it shouldn't work. The blood would have been tainted if he got it from their house, because of exposure that night and then the preservation charm after that. It would have made the blood break down, causing corruption. There is a reason why the goblins use silver when they ask for blood." 

"He has to know that." Severus was already planning Hadrian's escape from Hogwarts. 

"I think he is grasping at faint ideas. Hoping something will work. You know he already met with that woman." The Dark Lord thought Petunia Evans was one a good example of why their worlds needed to be separated. "I am going to mention it to Lucius. He has weakened a lot of the other wards in this attempt. The man may think he is the next Merlin but he really needs to stop casting wards. He still hasn't figured out why the wards at Vernon's house exist."

"I heard him mention Nicholas Flamel to Weasley."

"Great. Who do you think those will drag into this mess?" The Dark Lord had been adding wards to the third-floor trap door. He had also cast a few alarms to let him know if someone opened the door. 

"Longbottom. They keep trying to isolate the boy." 

"He is making this so difficult. He hasn't called the Order together or hinted at it?"

"No, he is confused about nothing happening on Halloween. I believe he was hoping the stone and Harry Potter being here would make you appear." Severus sighed. "I best be heading to my lab, I want to see what Hadrian and Draco are doing."

_____________________________________________

Minerva was standing in the Infirmary. Severus was giving Granger the antidote to the poison she drank. Weasley was recovering from a concussion and a broken arm. "Tell me again, how two first-year students were able to even get even remotely close to the stone?" Her anger was clear in how thick her brogue was, and how hard she was clenching her fists.

"I'm not sure. I didn't expect it to be the two of them." 

"You set it up to trap someone, not to protect the stone?" Minerva was keeping her voice low, but the steel and anger in her voice made it as sharp as if she was yelling. 

"A test, more of a test for Harry Potter." Dumbledore's resolve crumpled under Minerva's gaze. "We have to find him, you know it's important."

"So are the rest of the students. Those two almost died. It wasn't for the fact that Severus put an alarm on his potion phials, they might have." 

"They won't be leaving here for a few days. You will need to contact their parents." Poppy interrupted what she knew was going to be a long lecture delivered to Dumbledore. 

"I will take care of it." Dumbledore went to leave. "The stone is also safe."

"Oh, no you don't. You are going to be filling out the incident reports for my signature, I will inform their parents, and we will be discussing this later." Minerva stormed out of the Infirmary.

Severus rose from where he had been listening. "I start brewing more headache potions." 

___________________________________________________________________________________

2nd year (a/n the first few years nothing too exciting happens because Voldemort never left)

"I wonder what he is going to try this year?" Harry was watching Weasley walk by their compartment again.

"Still looking for Potter?" Dudley glanced up as Granger joined Weasley.

"I believe so. What is so important about them being friends with Harry Potter?" Neville asked. 

"The Bee is looking to be the Queen again, and he needs his worker bees." Luna turned her dreamy eyes at Harry. "The worker bee isn't a bee."

Harry gave her a slight grin. They had met Luna over the summer in Diagon Alley. Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Weasley had left the girl behind while they did their shopping. Harry and company strolled over to the rescue. "The Bee is going to get his stinger removed if he's not careful."

____________________________________________________________________________

3rd Year:

"Who?" Harry knew he heard the name of Sirius Black before, but he couldn't place it.

"Your father calls him the Mutt." Marvolo tossed the paper onto the table. The Daily Prophet was working on making sure no one would doubt the Ministry's attempts at catching Sirius Black. The only person to ever escape from Azkaban.

"So he escaped Azkaban to do what? We know he isn't one of Uncle Marvolo's supporters or followers. What was so special about that photo or story that made him want to escape? If, indeed, the fact that the newspaper was left behind holds any meaning." 

"He looks like Auntie Bella after one of her crazy moods has taken over." Draco turned the paper to the Quidditch section.

"Very true, we aren't sure. He is in Azkaban for killing those muggles and Pettigrew." Lucius had been trying to prevent Fudge from using Dementors at Hogwarts. "He wants to hire Lupin to be Quirrell's assistant. He is trying to say it's extra protection." 

"He wants to hire the wolf? The one that almost killed me? He really has lost his marbles." Severus couldn't believe what Dumbledore was doing.

"It has been denied. Marvolo turned him down, and I made sure the Board did too."

"Good. However, I believe we should teach the children the Patronus Charm." Lucius wasn't going to take any chances.

________________________________________________________

"Albus, Black is after something else. There is no reason for him to attack the portrait guarding Gryffindor or try to stab Mr. Weasley. Neither have anything to do with Mr. Potter even residing here. The Mutt is after something else in Gryffindor Tower." Severus turned to Minerva.

"I have to agree. It doesn't make any sense. He has to realize Mr. Potter isn't attending. The only reason he would try to stab Mr. Weasley is that he is trying to finish You-Know-Who's work. Why else would he attack a child of a known light family." 

Severus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He didn't believe that the Mutt was after the Weasley boy, he was after something the Weasley boy had.

_____________________________________________________________

"Oh dear." Poppy looked at the empty shells of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. "What happened?" She had already patched up Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley and given them a dreamless sleep potion. 

"Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley in their infinite wisdom decided that they didn't have to follow the rules and were out by the Whomping Willow after dinner. Black dragged Weasley into the shack. Mr. Weasley was carrying his pet rat, which was Peter Pettigrew. Lupin clearly didn't take his potion. Miss Granger went into detail about how Black was innocent, and when Lupin charged to transform, they all ran. Black lead Lupin away from them, however, he was also trying to catch Pettigrew. So according to Miss Granger, the Dementors came out of the Forbidden Forest and the edges of the wards and attacked the three of them." 

"I'm sure they didn't intend for it to happen." Dumbledore reasoned.

"Because of their disregard for the rules, three people are about to die. They are currently soulless. Lupin already had his potion in his hand. I handed it to him. I didn't put it on the desk, on a table, it was in his hands. Perhaps you are responsible then since you invite the man here as a special "instructor" despite the Board's refusal for him to be hired."

"It was all a horrible event by unforeseen circumstances."

"You are honestly going to let them get away with it. This isn't like my fifth-year where no one died. There are three people who are now dead because of the two of them breaking the rules." Severus couldn't believe the old fool.

"I must agree with Severus." Poppy sadly looked at the three men just waiting for their body to realize they didn't have a soul.

"I am also in agreement. Albus, you have let them break the rules to many times. Three people are dead. Granted, it was an accident, but punishment must be merited out." Minerva sighed, she was still surprised to realize Black was innocent, Pettigrew had been living as a rat for the last 12 years. "The Aurors should be finished with everything soon."

The Aurors were in the process of sending the Dementors back to Azkaban. Some had tried to speak to Granger and Weasley but Poppy had already given them their potion. 

__________________________________________________________________

"He got them off. They won't even be serving a detention." Severus was furious.

"How? It didn't even go to the Board or the Wizengamot?" Lucius had been looking forward to blacken Dumbledore's name a wee bit. He wasn't going to go after Weasley and Granger, as he firmly believed that Dumbledore was not completely in control of Hogwarts. 

"I am not sure. He just said that everything is handled and that Granger and Weasley are recovering nicely. When Minerva pressed for details, he informed us that they weren't in trouble, everything was handled, and they would be back in September."

Lucius and the Dark Lord exchanged a smirk. "Rita." They knew the reporter hated Dumbledore and if anyone could find out the details it would be here.

________________________________________________________

DUMBLEDORE EXCUSES THREE DEATHS!!!

By: Rita Skeeter

Many have heard and read the horrifying tale of how Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew died. What no one knows, however, is it as the fault of two students. Miss Hermione Granger and Mr. Ronald Weasley broke the safety rules established at Hogwarts due to the arrival of Dementors.

The Dementors were there to protect the students from the escaped mass murderer Sirius Black, who were learned was innocent. The two students decided they didn't have to follow the rules and were outside. They were by the Whomping Willow, and Sirius Black grabbed Mr. Weasley and pulled him into a small cave that was there. Mr. Weasley had been holding his pet rat, which was really Peter Pettigrew. 

Remus Lupin became involved when he witnessed the kidnapping of Mr. Weasley and went to aid him and Miss Granger. While in the cave, the truth was revealed, and they were about to head back to Hogwarts when the full moon made it presence known. Mr. Lupin was a werewolf and started to change. Sirius Black, who was a Grim in his Animagi form, reverted to his form and tried to lead Lupin away from the students. 

The bad news in this tale of horror was that Peter Pettigrew was also trying to make his escape. Black, in his craziness from Azkaban, started chasing the rat. The Dementors were attracted to the movement and noise and swarmed the trio. 

The Headmaster of Hogwarts is allowing two students who broke the rules, caused the death of three people, to be free of any form of punishment. He didn't even issue a detention. Granted the two students couldn't have controlled the Dementors, they couldn't have stopped a werewolf, but if they had obeyed the rules, none of this would have happened. 

If someone causes the death of someone else, even by accident, we have laws that demand something be done. What makes them so special? When we spoke to students in Diagon Alley the general feeling was it was because the two of them are Gryffindor. They informed me of numerous times Gryffindor is allowed to get away with pranks, rule breaking, and even bullying. I decided to investigate this, see page 3 for the story.

The Dark Lord smirked as he folded the paper. Rita had done a great job and she didn't even twist the truth. He knew she had read the Aurors' reports, and she had pulled all the detention slips. He wondered what Dumbledore would do? Would he cave to pressure? Would he turn a blind eye and say it's all a misunderstanding?


	9. Chapter 9

The train was full of gossip. Hadrian and Draco found Neville and Dudley already in their usual compartment. They knew their other friends would be joining them soon. "Luna gave me some interesting information she heard from Ginny Weasley."

"Oh?" Hadrian wasn't sure what was going to happen to Granger and Weasley, as the DMLE was still looking into the death of Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew. Madam Bones was demanding to know why Black was put in Azkaban when Pettigrew was clearly alive and had the Death Eater mark on his arm. 

Dumbledore ended up brought before the Wizengamot trying to explain why Black was put in Azkaban when the Potter Wills clearly stated he wasn't the secret keeper. Why wasn't Black given a trial? Especially since he was Chief Warlock, and knew Black personally. It was later shown that Dumbledore cast the Fidelius Charm and only a week later the Potters were attacked. Dumbledore had to explain why he didn't think it was strange for a 10-year-old rat to still be around. Why wasn't there any protection added after Black attacked Gryffindor dorm twice? 

"Granger's parents have removed her from Hogwarts. Granger and Weasley are on probation and have to do community service work. Granger's parents enrolled her in a muggle military school. Weasley is now enrolled at Durmstrang. No one else would accept him or Granger. The Wizengamot forbid Weasley from homeschool after he went on a rant about Slytherins and how they needed to die. Luna said Ginny was now afraid to attend Hogwarts after last year and now that her brother Ron is gone." 

Granger and Weasley had to explain their involvement in the first year event also. That came back and bit Dumbledore on the butt. They talked about Nicholas Flamel, the stone, how Voldemort was to return, and the stone was the key. They sounded as cracked as Dumbledore, which is why the Grangers pulled their daughter out of the wizarding world. She would do her probation with the muggle authorities.

"Sounds more like she is going to for poor me vote." Dudley was actually annoyed by Ginny, she had been following him around every time she saw him. His father and everyone agreed that Dumbledore believed Dudley was going to inherit the Potter title and money, so they were working on aligning themselves with Dudley.

"She is going to keep following you. When I was visiting Luna, all Ginny did was ask questions about you." 

"Aren't you just filled with all the latest gossip." Hadrian laughed. While he knew most of it, his father, the Dark Lord, and Lucius tried to keep them out of the conflict that Dumbledore was trying to create.

"I got a piece that none of you know." Draco had a smug smile on his face. "Something I heard Father telling Mother."

"Oh, do share." The other three laughed as they spoke at the same time.

"Dumbledore is also on probation and if anything happens this year, he is fired. Uncle Severus and Uncle Marvolo are going to be keeping a close eye on him." 

"Dad did mention something about Dumbledore being watched by the Board." 

They stopped talking as the compartment door opened and their friends started to visit.

____________________________________________________________________

"Albus, you know if you do anything, you will be fired." Minerva was getting annoyed. This was a staff meeting, not an Order meeting. The Order wasn't actually reformed but Dumbledore seemed to be treating the meetings as a way to find Harry Potter.

"Albus, it's been four years, he isn't a student here." Pomona smiled, it was that clearly showed she was trying to pacify an old confused man.

"I'm aware, but we have to find the boy. We need to know what happened to him." Dumbledore needed to show that he was right, that he wasn't crazy. He needed to find Harry Potter and show that he was needed to fight the return of Voldemort. He needed to figure out where Voldemort was. Why hadn't he returned when Harry was due here? Why weren't the Dark Mark darken? 

"Albus, this isn't the forum for this discussion. This is a staff meeting." Minerva glanced at Poppy. She was going to be speaking to the woman about giving Dumbledore a full medical work up. 

"Indeed. Mr. Potter is most likely dead. You heard that harpy." Severus had been dragged along when Dumbledore had found Petunia and when he got home, he sent Lucius the best bottle of elven wine from his wine cellar.

Dumbledore looked ready to debate the issue when the Dark Lord, as Quirrell asked: "Does it matter? He isn't present, and we have students arriving in a few hours." The Dark Lord slowly worked on getting rid of the stutter, citing visits to a mind healer to help him get over the traumatic vampire nightmare he had endured.

"Yes, they're due to arrive in three hours. We have had a lot of withdrawals, so some of the dorms have been combined, as well as some of the classes." Minerva had revamped them again this afternoon. "We had another fifteen withdrawal after the scene in Diagon Alley with Mr. Weasley, made the paper this morning." 

*************************Flashback*********************

"I don't want to go to Durmstrang. Why can't I return to Hogwarts? It's all those Slytherins' fault." Ron yelled at his mother.

"Ronald Billius Weasley, you can't return to Hogwarts and I can't homeschool you. Durmstrang was the only school willing to take you, and you have to either go to school or you will be sent to one of the military schools that Hermione is now forced to attend." Molly's voice carried through the bookstore. 

"It's not fair. Ginny gets to stay and become friends with Harry, but I have to go to Durmstrang." Ron slammed a book down.

"Mr. Potter is now attending Hogwarts?"

"Harry is alive?" 

"Where has he been?"

"Are you planning on killing Harry Potter too?"

Questions came flying out of the wizards and witches in the store. Molly pulled her son to her. "My son isn't going to kill Harry Potter!"

Rita's quill was flying away. "He killed three adults, why not?" Someone yelled out. Rita watched the Weasley's boy face turn red. 

"We could have saved them if we were allowed to use the time turner like Dumbledore instructed but we got caught with it by the Aurors." Weasley defended himself.

"Dumbledore provided you with a time turner?" Rita saw one of the junior reporters writing everything down.

"Well, he gave it to Hermione so she could take all her classes." Weasley sheepishly admitted. The Wizengamot wasn't aware of it because no one asked about the time turner, it would be later determined that Dumbledore memory charmed the Aurors who had seen it. Messing with time was an automatic life sentence in Azkaban.

"Do you still have the time turner?" Another question was shouted out.

Molly realizing this was going to lead to trouble, cast a Silencio on her son, and grabbing his and Ginny's hand, pulled them out of the bookstore.

**************************End Flashback**********************

Minerva dismissed most of the staff. The four heads of houses remained with Dumbledore. "Albus, you better make sure that time turner was accounted for." She warned. 

"It was. I have the authorization ready for Madam Bones to review." Dumbledore had Fudge sign it three years ago, with a stack of other forms. The man never realized he authorized it, he didn't want anyone to know he had a time turner, he had been using it for the search for Harry Potter. He, however, wasn't prepared for the Aurors finding Granger using it. He hadn't counted on someone summoning the Aurors before he did.

Minerva's lips were pressed together, a clear sign she wasn't very happy. "If anymore withdraw, we stand a chance of being forced to close Hogwarts down." 

"I will speak to the Ministry and perhaps members of the Board will be able to speak to the parents of the students who have withdrawn." Dumbledore already knew who he woul be asking. 

"Cornelius already thought of it and assigned the task to Lucius." Minerva knew Hogwarts would close unless they got rid of Dumbledore. He was clearly senile. 

"How many first years do we have?" Severus would be speaking to the Dark Lord and Lucius about an idea he had based on the information he was hearing.

"Ten. Evidentally, someone, I believe it was Miss Skeeter, spoke to the parents of the incoming first-years about how they felt about sending their children to Hogwarts with its new reputation. One of the withdraw slips mentioned they would never send their child here as long as Albus was in charge." 

"The slips have been submitted to the Board?" Pomona could see she lost a large number of her Puffs.

"Yes. As you can see every house lost a number of students. Thankfully the ones returning aren't the ones who have caused issues in the past." 

"I see. Mr. Dursley is returning." 

"Yes, Dudley, Hadrian, Draco, and Neville, with a few others spend most of their summer holiday together. Miss Lovegood was fascinated by Vernon Dursley's car." Severus had listened to the girl give all the details about the car and the vast variety of cars. "We even ended up going to an antique car show." 

"Draco went? His father didn't forbid it?" Dumbledore hoped this was his chance to show the rest of the staff that Slytherins can't change.

"Yes, the whole Malfoy family, Dursley family, Lovegood, even Lady Longbottom attended. It was a weekend outside of London. Before we went for the weekend, everyone who was over seventeen took driving lessons and got their licenses. Augusta and Lucius raced against each other. Lucius drove a GTO while Augusta drove a Charger. After six races, we called it a draw." 

"It sounds like you had a great time." Filius was smiling.

"We did. Hadrian now wants to get his when he gets old enough. He wanted to ride a motorcycle, all the kids did, but thankfully none was available to ride." Severus answered the different questions that the heads had, while Dumbledore was clearly trying to figure out where he went wrong.


	10. Chapter 10

Dumbledore was driving everyone nuts. He was determined to find Harry Potter, and with the decrease in students, it was very noticeable. Poppy and Minerva had been spiking the man's lemon drops with some different potions to see if they would work. They were running out of options, as the man refused to allow a full medical scan. 

The staff meetings weren't accomplishing anything. Dumbledore was treating them like they were meetings to find Harry Potter. He would ask questions about every muggle-born student. He wanted to know if anyone had spoken to their parents if they had siblings, but more importantly, if any of them were adopted.

Minerva decided to have staff meetings without Dumbledore being aware and basically, her and Severus were running the school. Minerva managed to keep Dumbledore away from a few of the school board meetings but by December, the Board wanted answers. 

Lucius and Augusta were leading the crusade to get rid of Dumbledore, which was very confusing to Minerva, at first. However, as time went on, she often found herself rethinking about the last few years and the changes that had occurred since the start of the new year, without Ronald Weasley's ranting about Slytherins. There weren't any house against house fights. Yes, students didn't always get along but there wasn't any hexing because someone was a Slytherin. 

"What are you doing, Minerva?" Filius entered the staff room to see boxes of parchment stacked, with Minerva clearly keeping a tally of whatever she was counting.

"Something Hadrian said, I'm checking a few things and found him to be correct."

"What did my son say?" Severus had been in his corner, reviewing his latest research material. 

"I heard him and Neville speaking in the library. They were discussing the lack of house fighting. Hadrian mentioned that when he was speaking to your grandparents portraits how surprised they were by the rivalries. Your great-great-grandfather, I believe, informed Hadrian that it didn't exist in his day either. So I pulled the detention slips for the last two hundred years, I found the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor didn't start until Albus' first year of teaching. I spoke to his brother, and he explained how Albus and Grindelwald had an affair about five years before he started here. He said it wasn't a huge deal to Albus, but two years before Albus started, he fell hard for a Slytherin, who was already courting someone. Guess who?"

"I'm afraid to ask." Severus wasn't sure he wanted to learn this information.

"He fell for Tiberius Augustus Prince, who was courting Fadia Verina Potter. I learned that they were both Slytherins, and from what Aberforth said, Albus didn't take being rejected a third time very well." 

"Third?" Filius and Severus were still trying to process what they just learned.

"Yes, according to Aberforth, their sister rejected Albus taking care of her. Next came Grindlewald, which ended in a duel that killed Ariana, the sister. Next, Tiberius. I found detention slips for Claudia Potter and Julius Prince, who were in Slytherin, and in their fifth year. Albus gave them detentions almost daily, and I won't even mention the point loss. The only reason they were able to graduate is that Headmaster Dippet revoked a lot of the detentions. After they graduated, he kept up the removing of points, cut back on the detentions but increased giving points to Gryffindor, and I found notes on the slips saying how Slytherins were the cause of whatever happened."

Severus closed his eyes. He now understood what Dumbledore's big plan was. He set him up, James Potter, Harry, all because he was rejected. He had thought Dumbledore's focus on finding Hary Potter a bit strange but he knew Dumbledore had been building the conflict for years. All dark wizards, all Slytherins, and all dark creatures knew Dumbledore was pushing for a war. The light knew only what Dumbledore told them, and now Severus could see their eyes were being forced open. 

"So his issue about Harry Potter is really to end his lifelong plan to destroy the Prince and Potter lines." Filius glanced at Severus. "He set everything in motion. It explains him covering Remus Lupin almost killing Severus in their fifth year. It explains him forcing so many Slytherins into You-Know-Who's side. It explains why he set up James and Lily's deaths."

"He wouldn't!" Minerva looked ready to faint.

"Minerva, haven't you ever wondered why he moved James and Lily from Potter Manor to his old house? Haven't you ever wondered why as the caster of the Fidelius, he left Sirius Black in Azkaban? Why he was so determined to leave Harry with muggles?" Filius asked the questions Severus had wanted to ask. "He knew who the secret keeper was, yet, didn't allow Sirius Black a trial? Didn't you think it strange that Albus is determined to have another war?"

Severus summoned a bottle of whiskey, poured the three of them a glass. Severus had wanted to get Minerva and the others to see for years what Dumbledore had done. "Drink." 

Minerva closed her eyes. "We have no evidence to prove this."

"No, but we do have evidence that he isn't managing Hogwarts correctly. We have evidence that he needs a mind healer. Minerva, it's time." 

"Minerva, Filius is correct, it's time. I know he has been a long time friend and mentor but look at Hogwarts. We can't allow one man to ruin Hogwarts."

______________________________________________________________

"He planned it all to ruin the Potter and Prince families, while he gained control over the world."

"I think I need that explained." Marvolo could see he wasn't the only confused. Hadrian and Lucius were equally confused. "He wanted revenge?"

Severus had arranged for a meeting between the four of them. Minerva, together with the heads of houses, forced Dumbledore to retire. Minerva submitted all of their findings to Amelia Bones, who with the approval of the Wizengamot, used truth serum on Dumbledore after he was admitted to the Janus Thickery unit. "I was there to administer the truth serum, they want to keep this quiet."

Severus was still furious, but now he regained control over his emotions. He had destroyed the training room in Prince Manor before returning to Hogwarts. "It started with his relationship with Grindelwald. The greater good line is from their relationship. They wanted to rule the muggles." Severus held up a hand. "Let me explain it all, and it will answer your questions, as I had the same questions I know you want to ask."

"Dad, are you alright?" Hadrian had never seen his father this distressed.

"Yes, Hadrian, but it's been a rough month." Severus knew his son was going to need to vent after this too. "Albus was set to follow up with his plans but his sister, Ariana, had a nasty bout of accidental magic and killed their mother. Brief background on that issue was when Ariana was six, some muggle boys attacked her while she was using her magic. I don't know the details, neither did he. However, his father ended up in Azkaban for attacking the muggle boys, Their mother moved them to Godric's Hollow to get away from the scandal. When their mother was killed, Aberforth took over caring for Ariana."

"Albus was all set to go with Grindelwald, but Aberforth was still a student at Hogwarts. Aberforth wanted to drop out to care for Ariana. Albus' pride reared its ugly head and he decided it was his duty to suddenly start caring for his sister. A duel occurred over that decision, in which Ariana was killed by a stray spell."

"Grindelwald took off, Albus and Aberfoth buried Ariana. Shortly after that, he met Tiberius Augustus Prince, who was courting Fadia Verina Potter, at the time. Albus fell hard, he believed that with Tiberius at his side, they could rule the muggles. Tiberius was already a potion master, and Albus believed that they could give anyone who was against them, potions, for the greater good. However, Tiberius already had a marriage contract pending with the Potter family. Albus was furious. Now, this was 1920. He became a professor that September. Headmaster Dippet made him Deputy Headmaster in 1929. We saw how he already was treating Slytherins."

"I meet him in 1937." Marvolo wondered what Dumbledore had done.

"Yes, and because of the woman at the orphanage, he selected you to be his revenge. He knew you were going to Slytherin, so he decided you would be the one to defeat Grindelwald. He had been aware of what the man was doing, but he was fearful that his association with him would get out. He was fearful that Grindelwald would mention the greater good, the muggle ruling, and whatever plans they had made. So he started informing everyone how evil you were, giving you a lot of detentions. He even was the one who gave Horace Slughorn the book on soul magic. It's why he believed that you would return from the dead."

"I didn't use it." 

"We know, but he believes that you did. He kept insisting that you will return. The goblins were called in afterward, and three Unspeakables joined them in doing a ritual to determine if you had any Horcruxes, Tom Marvolo Riddle has now been declared officially deceased." 

"Horcruxes?" Hadrian never heard of them. "Soul magic?"

"I will explain later, let me move on." Severus inhaled and slowly exhaled. "After you left Hogwarts, he knew he had to deal with Grindelwald, as he knew you were already going to work against him politically. He used the defeat to blacken your ideas and name. He knew people would listen to their new hero. It was what he was counting on. If you had defeated Grindelwald, he planned on killing you, saying how you were dark and evil. He had spent years already building that defense." 

"When my mother attended Hogwarts, he was the one to work the wedge between her father and her. He had made my grandfather believe they were friends, he had originally planned to kill my mother, but changed his mind, he instead slipped her potions. He knew how my grandfather felt about muggles, and one love potion to Tobias Snape, my parents were married."

"As Marvolo was gaining power, he decided to give his original plan a new twist. Since James Potter, Sirius Black, and I were all entering Hogwarts, he used a few compulsion spells. I was to be a Ravenclaw, Black was a Slytherin. Potter was to be a toss-up between a Puff or Gryffindor, he put a compulsion on the Sorting Hat for Gryffindor, and started Potter and Black on personality potions until he did a dark magic ritual that permanently adjusted their personalities."

"He wanted them to torment me, forcing me to seek solace in Slytherin. He also used a compulsion spell that caused Black to send me to Lupin as a werewolf and arranged for that prank that destroyed my friendship with Lily. Albus, in order to get a small bit of revenge, had James and Lily get married. He knew Charlus and Doria would hate their son marrying a muggle-born. He was wrong. Albus admitted he had tried to control Lily, but Lily was able to slip out of his control."

"Which explains why she came to me." 

"Yes, but he doesn't know that. The prophecy and everything else was all part of his plans. He wanted Marvolo to wipe out the Potter family. It's why he made sure you found out about the prophecy, about where all the Potters lived. He knew I joined, and he admitted that he planned on me joining. The original plan was that once you killed the Potters, he was going to duel you, win, throw all of the Death Eaters in Azkaban, along with Black. He wanted the Black seats, as well as taking control over the Potters, blocking any dark seats from being taken up by anyone else. He doesn't understand why Harry Potter didn't die, he believes that Harry is a Horcrux. Albus said the only way to defeat the Dark Lord was to find Harry Potter and have them duel each other, killing the Horcrux, and preventing the Dark Lord from returning." 

"He would have complete control." Lucius had seen Dumbledore trying to block the seats. "Hadrian living changed it. He couldn't have the control he wanted with Harry Potter alive."

"Exactly, and since he believed Marvolo would return from the dead, he needed another way to keep control. He knew about Petunia, he knew she hated magic. He had planned for Hagrid to pick Harry Potter up. We know how Hagrid feels about Slytherins and Gryffindor. After that, the Weasley family at the platform, Ron Weasley to sit with Harry on the train. Hermione Granger was to control the information Harry Potter would receive. His theory was that Harry wouldn't want to lose his friends, so he wouldn't want to outshine a slacker like Ron Weasley, Hermine Granger was to make sure they passed."

"Forcing us to confront each other. If Harry Potter won, kill him saying he was a Horcrux and evil. If I had won as Voldemort, he would have killed me while I was weak from the duel." 

"Worse, he planned on telling Harry Potter he needed to die. He planned to have a boy walk to his death, ending the Potter line. He promised Molly Weasley money and a marriage contract, but if Harry died, he could keep the money." 

"How did he explain your spying? How was he going to deal with Hadrian? He doesn't know he was Harry." Lucius wondered if anyone else was involved in this plot.

"He wasn't expecting me to come to him to warn him about the attack. He already knew of it. Pettigrew was really his spy. He had already planned to make sure Marvolo found out where the Potters were. He counted on me being the one to tell Harry Potter he would have to die. He also was going to allow it to be leaked out I was a spy and have me killed by Death Eaters or the Dark Lord, himself. He had all these yearly events arranged to test Harry and force a confrontation. He even planned on Harry, with Granger and Weasley, going on a Horcrux hunt."

"Did he admit to killing anyone?" Marvolo knew there were a lot of missing or declared dead wizards from the last war.

"Yes, a lot, including Reggie." Severus looked his son. "He arranged for the Potters' deaths. He used Fabian and Gideon Prewett. He used Imperio on them after they killed the Potters, he killed them, making it look like Death Eaters. Reggie saw him leaving the bodies. He killed Reggie, placing him in a cave. A cave he believed that Marvolo would have used to store a Horcrux. Amelia is going to arrange to retrieve the body."

"What are they going to do to him?" Hadrian had tears running down his face. He hadn't even realized he was being held by his father.

"They are going to bind his magic. Keep him in a secured ward in St. Mungos for dangerous criminals. Once they are sure he isn't faking a mental illness, they will decide if he is to remain there or Azkaban. Amelia wants him to endure Azkaban since he sent innocent people there."

"Are we going to tell anyone that I'm Harry Potter?" 

"No, it will never be revealed. You're Hadrian Snape, my son." Severus glanced at Marvolo and Lucius. He knew he wouldn't have to ask for a vow, they had been protecting his son for years, and nothing would change that.

_________________________________________________________

"Severus, do hurry, we don't want to be late." Irma was standing at the bottom of the grand staircase in the foyer of Prince Manor.

"We won't be late. I just needed to get my great-grandfather's cufflinks. I wanted to wear them instead of the Slytherin ones." Severus had waited until he was next to his wife to respond. "Besides, Hadrian would never allow his bonding to take place until we arrived." 

Severus held out his elbow for his wife to take. They had only been bonded for ten years, but so much had changed once Dumbledore was removed from power. Marvolo and Lucius were able to get Hogwarts back to her former glory with the assistance of her staff. Minerva remained the Deputy Headmistress while Filius became the Headmaster. Filius was retiring this year, he wanted to return to the goblin concave to instruct the new goblin school program in association with Hogwarts. 

"It's a year of great change."

Severus wondered if his wife was reading his mind. Hadrian would be joining the staff at Hogwarts as the new Potion Master, as Severus was going to be the new Headmaster. Marvolo was now the Head of Slytherin. Minerva was going to retire next year, after Neville took over as head of Hufflepuff, and Dudley, Ravenclaw. Gryffindor was also seeing a new head, in George Dursley. Minerva wanted to enjoy her new husband, Elias Doge.

Unlike his friends, Hadrian had gone to Italy to train as a Potion Master, followed by a Mastery in Defense. So now almost thirty, Hadrian was ready to settle into Hogwarts. Neville stayed with Pomona, received his Masters, while Dudley did Charms, George did Transfiguration, and Draco surprised everyone. Draco went into Healing, he would join the staff next year as their first healer, not a medi-wizard. Poppy was eager to retire and see her grandchildren being raised.

"Indeed." 

_____________________________________________________________________

"Finally married, Mr. Snape." Dudley laughed. 

Hadrian was watching his new husband smooze their guests. "You mean I finally wore him down enough for him to say yes?"

"True, I lost the bet, I said it would be at least another year." Draco was watching his pregnant wife, Pansy, talking to an equally pregnant Luna. "I think Luna won, I swear she is a seer."

"I've been telling you that for years." Neville knew Luna didn't think she was. Luna believed magic was at work. 

"George looks happy." Hadrian could see George and his twin, Fred, were talking to Lee Jordan.

"He is. Molly finally evicted Ron from the Burrow. Ginny, Molly informed us, is finally marrying that bloke down the road." Dudley really wished Arthur had saved the Weasley family from Ron, Ginny, and Molly.

"How many kids does she have now?" Draco shuddered as he remembered Ginny Weasley trying to get involved with each one of them.

"Six from four different men. This latest guy has three of his own." Dudley rolled his eyes. "Molly wants a small wedding ceremony." 

"Isn't it like her third?" Neville refused to attend anything involving the Weasley family. Ginny always used Luna. 

"I thought she was still married to that muggle Poke or something?" Hadrian saw his father lead his step-mother out onto the dance floor. "She makes him so happy."

"She does." Dudley watched his own father lead out Poppy, he was hoping they would be married next. "Trashy never married Piers, but he is the father of two of her brats." Ginny had meet Piers while trying to work on getting Dudley interested in her. 

"So how many times has she been married?" Draco saw his Father and Mother joining his wife and Luna. He knew his parents were overprotective of Pansy and those they considered family, like Luna, Neville, Dudley, George, well the list was getting bigger each year.

"Never." George announced, giving his husband a kiss. "I don't think she will marry that bloke either. Ronnikins however, sent a letter, he is marrying Granger. She is a captain, now."

"What is your dear brother doing for a living?" Neville handed Hadrian a sprig of lavender. Marvolo loved the smell of lavender and Hadrian always tried to wear a fresh sprig.

"Nothing. No one in the magical world wants to hire him since he still rants about how nothing is his fault. Mother dearest made a big mistake in allowing Ronniken to be expelled." Ron hadn't lasted six months at Drumstand before he was expelled, and the Ministry had to allow Ron to be homeschooled. 

"No more gossip." Marvolo took Hadrian's hand. "I want to dance with my husband."

Hadrian kissed Marvolo. "It's your feet, Mr. Snape."

"I'm well aware of your dancing abilities." Marvolo guided Hadrian to the dance floor.


End file.
